Valentine’s Day wish! Rose growers target exports worth Rs 57 crore

Indian rose growers are hoping to match the export figure for last two years riding on the demand for the flower around the Valentine’s Day season. India has exported flowers worth Rs 57 crore each for the last couple of years.

A survey conducted by the Indian Society of Floriculture Professionals (ISFP), the country’s s major rose export shipments for Valentine’s Day are heading to UK, which accounts for a 35% of the Indian exports. Despite a loss of production by the farmers, which is estimated between 10-15% due to the extended monsoon this season, they may get compensated by increased realisation by a similar percentage, Praveen Sharma, president, ISPF said.

In terms of rose imports from India, UK is followed by Japan (19%) and Australia (18%). Malaysia, Singapore and Holland are also among the importers of the flower. Holland is the global hub of flower trade where the world’s largest flower auction takes place.

Sharma says that Indian flowers have found a direct route to United Kingdom and other European markets like Greece and Italy . This strategy has played important role in supplying fresher flowers to end consumers, ensuring direct delivery, avoiding process of shipping to Holland, passing through all the quality checks, repacking and re-exports to other countries from Holland, Sharma says. This strategy also offers two extra days of vase life to florist, and prevents extra cost burden of handling, logistics and commissions of various agencies.

Sharma said that the year 2019 was a mixed year for Indian flower growers as the extended rainy season gave tough time to growers against high humid conditions and fungal diseases till late October. This resulted in lower production and increased cost of production, due to plant protection inputs, he points out. Like every year, months of November-February bring cheers among the growers as the climate becomes favourable which results in world class flower quality.

Significantly, in 2019, Maharashtra farmers experienced 166 rainy days as compared to 127 in 2018, followed by 199 sunny days while there were 231 sunny days in 2018. The sunshine and temperatures play a very important role in flower production. The overall drop of production will be 10 to 15% this year in Maharashtra, Sharma said.

In 2017-18, India exported flowers worth Rs 57.66 crore followed by exports worth Rs 57.46 crore. In the current cycle, the exports have been worth Rs 20.07 crore till date, he said.

Sharma said that farmers generate almost 55% of the revenue between Nov to March. “Between the first five months, starting from November till March, we have 55% of total production, and 73% of total annual revenue,” Sharma says.

He adds that this year ‘we have very good domestic demand followed by routine exports demand’. The Valentine’s Day falls on Friday, the last working day of the week, and offices and universities will have good demand, he said. There are several wedding muhurats from February 16 till February 28, which will put more pressure on supply and will result in higher prices.

Usually, production for Valentine season begins from January 25 till February 12. However, due to warmer days the production has been pre-poned in some cases, from January 20 onwards. The flowers are sold for Rs 150-200 for a bunch of twenty. In and around Valentine’s Day, this is expected to touch Rs 200-400.

An earlier report by rose growers in Pune’s Maval region had stated that Rose exports could get affected due to the bad weather during the year, predicting a 10-15% drop in supply of roses for the export market. The domestic market, however, could be more lucrative for the growers, Pune District Flower Growers Association had stated.

Source: Financial Express