Flowers are not only beautiful to look at, growing them in a  large scale can be a good business proposition too.   The floriculture industry in India has huge potential for generating income, employment and enhancing export earnings. According to an  estimate by the Agriculture Ministry the  market of flowers and ornamental plants fetches a whopping Rs 10,000 million for cultivators.

Blessed with rich tropical and agro-climatic conditions, which are well suited for cultivation of wide range of flowers, India is fast emerging as a major exporter of floriculture products.

Flower exports have recorded a robust growth from Rs 18.80 crore in 1993-94 to over Rs 4,00 crore in 2006-07 and now India’s share in floriculture export is about 2 per cent of the total agro-export basket. India’s fresh flowers are reaching about 87 countries with a significant share going to countries like Australia, UK, Japan, Netherlands and UAE. During the last ten years, there has been an exponential growth in the earning through the marketing of floriculture products, both in the domestic and international markets. 
Consumption of flowers in the southern States is much higher than in the North. During the last few years there has been drastic change in the trade of modern flowers in Bombay, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kolkata.

Cut flowers

A major growth, of course, has been in the production of cut flowers for exports. More than 150 export-oriented units (EOUs) in floriculture sector approved by the Government, are coming up in different parts of the country, particularly around Pune, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad.

A majority of these EOUs are being set up with the collaboration of foreign technology and infrastructural support. As leading expert on floriculture industry S Jafar Naqvi says, “With the world’s fastest growing retail market, second largest consumer base and unlimited opportunities for growth, India’s floriculture industry is today a force to reckon with in the world.”

Fuelling growth

Naqvi, who was the Chief Co-Ordinator of the recently-concluded Flora Expo 2007, says India has all the potential to emerge as a ‘Flower Power’ in the global market. Hitherto a marginal player in the global flower business, the floriculture industry is targeting an annual one billion dollar in export of floriculture products by 2010.

The current boom in the floriculture industry, analysts say, is also because of government’s decision to allow 100 per cent FDI.

Currently, flower trade has attracted the largest demand from an estimated 300 million middle-class flower-loving people with consumption in the cities and major towns at 40 per cent per annum. Flower retail shops have mushroomed all over the place from major metros to market shops and flower boutiques. Further the supermarket/hypermarket retail chains have fueled the growth in the consumption.

Creating employment

Cashing in on this trend, the Commerce Ministry also feels that floriculture is all about creating new employment opportunities in far flung areas. The focus has shifted where instead of talking about Dollars, it should be about a million jobs!

Additionally, supermarket chains overseas like TESCO, Sainsbury, Wal-Mart, Asda, Sears, Carrefour, Metro, K-Mart and the likes are looking for large quantities of flowers, latest varieties and a well-defined supply chain.
“Floriculture in India is becoming an attractive commercially viable diversification option. Several companies involved in agro business are set to venture into this industry,” Naqvi opines.

Visualizing the vast business potential the government is also now encouraging large corporate houses to set up units of global scale and size, so that they can meet the volume, consistency and quality demands of the worldwide market.

Biggies in the corporate world like Reliance, ITC, Tata Tea, Bharti Group/Field Fresh and Thapar Group are planning investments in the flower sector, industry sources say.

Boosting exports

The government is also working hard at getting the European Community (EC) to reduce the high rate of import duty on Indian cut flowers. To further promote the floriculture, the Commerce Ministry is contemplating duty exemption on the import of materials for Green House and Tissue Culture Labs considering the huge capital inputs.

Government is also striving for an air freight subsidy for export of cut flowers and exemption of export oriented units from requirements of customs bonding. What’s more, APEDA is planning to step up flower exports to West Asia and foray into Australia and New Zealand markets.

The government is also giving relief in import duty on a wide range of materials used in the floriculture industry. For instance, import duty of seed development machineries and specified goods for Green House has been brought down from 136 per cent to 25 per cent. Floriculture units can now avail of the benefits of duty free imports if they export 50 per cent of their production.

The Centre is planning to set up model Floriculture Regional Centres at Chennai, Bangalore, Trivandrum, Pune, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mohali, Srinagar and Gangtok to conserve important varieties of typical flower crops of the region and arrange for large-scale multiplication.

Setting up of six Agro Export Zones for floriculture, besides a large number of flower clusters under National Horticulture Mission, is expected to provide further impetus to the domestic and international trade of floriculture products in the coming years. Though floriculture industry feels that the government is doing a lot to boost the business as well as export potential of the industry there are still many things to do.

Need for technology

As S K Gutgutia, Managing Director of the Bangalore-based Florance Flora —India’s leading floriculture company — says the government should promote inflow of foreign technology to promote India’s floriculture industry.  “At present, the cultivation of flowers in greenhouses is dependent on foreign technology, as we are yet to establish our indigenous technology. The initial investment is, therefore, very high.”  Gutgutia added.

“Flowers are highly perishable in nature and therefore when grown in a controlled environment, they need to be transported in similar conditions to maintain their quality and freshness.

For this, refrigerated vans for road transport and adequate warehousing space at airport are required till they are loaded in the aircraft.” Gutgutia explains. Industry feels that the major hurdle coming in the way of export of flowers is lack of adequate infrastructural facilities for transportation of fresh flowers to overseas destination.
A senior executive of Soex Flora — the largest growers of fresh cut flowers and roses — says, “Cut flowers are to be stored at a temperature of 2-4 degree centigrade even during transit in air cargo. Limited availability of c0argo space in planes for the bulky products like flowers is a drawback.”

The certification procedures related to phyto-sanitary and custom formalities are tedious. There is no direct air service from India to flower marketing areas like Amsterdam and Copenhagen. This results in inordinate delay in sending consignments to these areas, industry feels.

Industry experts feel high air freight and inadequate cargo space for flowers are the twin problems to be sorted out with airlines. 

If India wants to emerge as a ‘Flower Power’ in the global market, bottlenecks like inadequate infrastructure, inappropriate plant material and good production technology and non-availability of basic inputs would have to be removed.

Area and Production of Flowers in India (1993-1994 to 2004-2005)

Year	Area   (In '000 Hec.)	Production Loose    (In ' 000 MT	Cut      (In million No.)
1993-94	53	233	555
1994-95	60	261	519
1995-96	82	334	537
1996-97	71	366	615
1997-98	74	366	622
1998-99	74	419	643
1999-00	89	509	681
2000-01	98	556	804
2001-02	106	535	2565
2002-03	70	735	2060
2003-04	101	580	1793
2004-05	116	655	1952

Flower   Producing States

States	’000 tonnes
Tamil Nadu	156.70
Karnataka	138.77
Andhra Pradesh	121.30
West Bengal	31.300
Maharashtra	29.80
Delhi	25.00
Haryana	17.90
Uttar Pradesh	3.40
Punjab	2.7