New Year cheer for flower farmers

With great excitement Mohammad Sher Ali and fellow farmers in Panisara of southwestern upazila Jhikargacha began plucking rose, gladiolus, tuberose and gerbera in abundance from earlier this week.

The reason for their excitement was the New Year’s Day, an occasion that almost always brings them bonanzas -- and accounts for 10 percent of total annual flower sales.

And this year was no different for Ali and his fellow flower farmers.

“We really had an exceptionally good market -- we got profitable prices for our flowers,” said Sajeda Begum after selling gerbera at 50 percent higher rates than the regular market price of Tk 6-7 each piece.

The mid-aged women boarded the ship for flower cultivation with many other farmers in their locality two decades back -- a decision that has served them well more often than not.

Her family began cultivating flowers on half an acre of land and soon expanded to more than one acre -- encouraged by increasing demand for flowers thanks to rising income and cultural sophistication.

“There was a time when we gave away flowers for lack of demand. Those days are long gone now,” said Md Abdur Rahim, president of the Bangladesh Flower Society (BFS).

No occasion is complete without a flower in sight nowadays, he said, adding that the demand is growing at 10-12 percent annually.

Flower cultivation first began in Bangladesh in the 80s in Panisara. From there, it spilled over to other districts.

Today, flowers are grown on 2,200-2300 hectares in Bangladesh, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

Farmers mainly cultivate 9 types of flowers, including marigold, gladiolus, tuberose, rose, gerbera and chrysanthemum, according to Rahim.

The actual data on market size is not available and guesstimates of stakeholders vary between Tk 200 crore and Tk 1,500 crore annually.

Occasions like the first day of both the English and Bangla calendar year, Valentine’s Day and national days such as the International Mother Language Day on February 21 account for most of the yearly sales, Rahim added.

“Youths are the major drivers of the flower market,” said Ashrafuzzaman Khan, owner of Flower Source BD, a flower shop in Dhanmondi, adding that the market has been growing since 2005. Flower Source BD’s sales on New Year’s Day go up to Tk 7-8 lakh, which is 17 times more than his daily sales on normal business days. The trade has also created thousands of jobs throughout the country, according to Khan. There will be more than 500 shops in Dhaka alone. “You will find flower stores even in upazila towns.”

“The market prospect is huge and what is needed is large investment to produce flowers in greenhouse so that we can get quality flowers,” said Khan, who sells imported flowers mainly from China. Only those varieties of flowers that are not grown here are imported, according to BFS President Rahim. Otherwise, locally-grown flowers meet most of the domestic requirement.

The locally-grown flowers though have not been able to make any breakthrough in the global market.

In the absence of facilities for sorting, grading, cooling and cool chain transport, the quality of flower simply deteriorates, hampering the prospect for exports. “We will be unable to export unless we ensure the supply of quality flower in the domestic market,” he said, adding that a flower processing centre is being established in Panisara to address the shortcomings.

In addition, the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) is also taking on a Tk 50 crore-project to strengthen the marketing system of flowers. Under the project, which is being funded from the public exchequer, a wholesale market for flowers with facilities such as air conditioning, sorting, grading and bunching would be established at Gabtoli in Dhaka city, said Dewan Ashraful Hossain, the scheme’s project director.

Besides, four assembling centres would be set up in four flower growing hubs under the project initially, he said.

Despite the progress, the popularity of plastic flowers have become a source of concern for growers.

“Various event management firms are using plastic flowers for decoration. This is hurting us seriously,” Rahim said.

DAM official Hossain echoed the same and said they will write to the higher ups urging them to use real flowers in government programmes instead of the plastic ones.