India: Gerbera flower trade in Osmanabad wilts under cash crunch

Balaji Pawar, a Gerbera producer from the drought-prone Padoli village in Osmanabad district of Marathwada, has been endlessly waiting for a call from Delhi market placing sale order for his flowers during the ongoing wedding season.

"The wedding season happens to be peak time for our business, but we have been incurring heavy losses now. We receive bulk orders for our flowers from Delhi and Hyderabad markets that fetch us good income. Not only had the sale of flowers dipped in inter-state markets, but the prices have also declined by more than half," he rued.

Pawar and scores of other gerbera growers from Osmanabad district, who shunned traditional cropping choices and shifted towards floriculture due to consecutive years of deficient monsoon, has been bearing the brunt of demonetisation. The skewed demand-supply equation due to currency crunch has resulted in the flower prices dropping from Rs 5-Rs 7 (0.07-0.10 USD) per piece to Rs 2-Rs 3 (0.03-0.04 USD) per piece.

Read more at the Times of India