Ahead of Valentine’s Day, roses cost a bunch

India normally exports roses worth around Rs 20 crores during the Valentine’s Week, but this year, exports are down by 50 per cent.

Roses — the traditional gift associated with Valentine’s Day — is expected to be both short in supply and costly this year. A dip in productions, traders in Pune’s wholesale market say, has shot up the prices of the flower whose demand increases traditionally on Valentine’s Day – which is on Sunday.

Sagar Bhosale, a wholesale flower trader in the market, while speaking to The Indian Express, said average traded prices of a bunch is raging from Rs 300-150/- . “An individual flower of the best quality will thus be priced at Rs 25-30/- in the retail market,” he said. Arrivals, he said, have dipped by over 30-40 per cent which has shot up the prices. “Due to the Covid-19 crisis, farmers let their flower fields run wild. Most were not confident of a good price as the lockdown had stumped all economic activities. Thus arrivals have taken a major hit,” he said.

Praveen Sharma, president of Indian Society of Floriculture Professionals, said the lockdown has seen many farmers pausing their production in view of low uptake. Roses, like most flower crops, are grown under green houses and their demand has taken a hit since March last year. “People consumed vegetables but flowers was not on top of anyone’s list during the lockdown. Thus our growers were not able to get any market for their produce. Their input costs in terms of fertilizers, electricity etc kept on rising so many took a pause,” he said.

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India normally exports roses worth around Rs 20 crores during the Valentine’s Week, but this year, exports are down by 50 per cent. “We were expecting some help from the government but unfortunately we did not get any,” he said. While exports remained low, the domestic markets saw good demand but the supply was not up to the mark. “This has resulted in a steep rise in cost of roses which is good for farmers,” he said.

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