Home ›› 13 Feb 2023 ›› Front
For this reason, besides shop owners, around 200 hawkers are also busy selling flowers to the visitors of the book fair. The hawkers said roses, dahlia, marigolds, and chrysanthemums are the most salable flowers here.
On International Mother Language Day, people across the country pay homage to the language martyrs with flower and floral wreaths. For this day, marigold is the most demanded flower while for Valentine’s Day and Pahela Falgun, rose is the most preferable flower.
80% are local flowers
According to the flower traders, rose, gerbera, gladiolus and chrysanthemum are dominating the market this year.
Md Alhaj, a salesman of Subarna Puspa Bitan at Shahbagh, said, “Around 80 per cent of the flowers sold in this market are produced locally in Jhidaidah, Jashore, Bogura, and Gaibandha. The rest 20 per cent comes mostly from China.”
“The supply of the foreign flower tulip has reduced this year and the sale of the artificial flower is gradually increasing,” he added.
According to the data from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), the country produced the highest number of 141.56 crore pieces of marigold (gada) in FY22, followed by 63.48 crore roses, 11.27 crore tuberoses (rajanigandha), 7.67 crore gerberas, and 6.85 crore pieces of gladiolus.
Though the tuberoses are the third highest-produced flower in the country, no tuberose was found in the Shahbagh flower market on Sunday.
Each shop sells Tk20,000–1,00,000 flowers a day
On average, each of the over 200 retail shops at Shahbagh flower market sells flowers worth at least Tk20,000 every day. The sale increases to Tk 1,00,000 if they receive orders.
On February 14 and 21, each shop sells flowers worth at least Tk 1, 00,000.
At present, a rose is selling for Tk 8-10, and a gerbera for Tk 10-12. On Valentine’s Day, each rose and gerbera will be sold at Tk 50 or more. That is why February is an important month for us, said the owner of a flower shop.
Nazrul Islam has been involved in the flower business in Shahbagh area for the last 34 years.
He said, “There is no shortage of flower supply. Merchants supply truck-full of flowers regularly.”
“In February all the customers buy fresh flowers, instead of artificial ones as it is related to the emotion,” Nazrul said.
But in the other months, people like to buy artificial flowers made from plastic as it lasts for an unlimited time. This is a threat to traders, growers, wholesalers, and retailers of fresh flowers, he observed.
Farmers are optimistic about a good sale
Flower farmers from Godkhali union under Jhikargacha upazila of Jashore, the second highest flower-producing district, are now busy selling flowers.
Farmers of Godkhali told The Business Post on February 9 that they were expecting to sell flowers worth around Tk 300 crore this month.
Abdur Rahim, president of the Bangladesh Flower Growers’ Association, said, “A lion’s share of roses comes from Jashore’s Godkhali area. Not only roses, other varieties of flowers are also grown here.”
Jhenaidah came on top among the districts producing the highest number of 140.86 crore flowers in FY22.
Jhenaidah was followed by Dhaka with 45.95 crores, Jashore with 37.20 crores, Chuadanga with 2.41 crores, and Chattogram with 1.81 crores, showed the DAE data.
These five districts together produced 228.23 crore pieces of flowers, which is around 97 per cent of the total production in FY22.
