India: Flowers wilt as States wrangle over water
Local growers in Hosur, the largest supplier of roses in the country, estimate their losses (since the start of the agitation) to be between Rs 22 crore (3.3 million USD) and Rs 25 crore (3.7 million USD). Domestic demand for flowers in Tamil Nadu is generally dull in September – it coincides with the Tamil month of Purataasi (a month in which no religious ceremonies take place). Hence, smaller growers look to sell outside Tamil Nadu, while big exporters with cold storage facilities supply overseas, primarily the Central and South East Asian Countries.
Bala Siva Prasad, president of the Hosur Small Farmers Federation, which has about 600 growers under its umbrella, says, “The local market is a dry season with no weddings or muhurtams this month. So, we bank on the Delhi market and Dubai.” For him, the domestic market in Hyderabad, Telangana and Rajamundry have also been affected, since vehicles have to pass through Karnataka..
For Narayanan Balakrishnan, the head of Alankar Flora farms at Denkanikottai, the export market is Singapore and Malaysia. Since the second week of September, his operations have totally stopped. To fulfil prior orders, he had to route his exports via the Tiruchy airport twice – instead of the Bengaluru airport. “That is not possible every time,” he says. Till September, Alankar Flora had a daily production of 10,000 stems and exported 9,000 stems, three batches of 3,000 steps each, every week.
Read more at The Hindu
