Despite having the world's largest acreage under flower cultivation, India remains a marginal player in the global flower bazaar. In contrast, Holland, a small country with just 5,000 hectares under floriculture, compared with India's more than 117,000 hectares, is the uncontested global leader in this field. Indeed, it is a telling comment that the bulk of Indian flower exports, worth around Rs 400 crore last year, normally lands up in Holland and gets re-exported from there to other destinations. Clearly, the issue is not acreage or product so much as an export infrastructure and organised market systems "" features of good flower markets anywhere. The domestic flower market, on the other hand, has been blooming despite being disorganised, as lifestyles have changed, and this may be taking away the export incentive. But then again, the true cause of poor exports is more likely to be the plethora of constraints in the way of exports. The most important among these, predictably, pertain to infrastructural deficiencies. The existing systems of handling, processing and transportation are not what delicate flowers will survive. Moreover, air transportation costs remain high despite being partly subsidised. Furthermore, frequent flight schedule disruptions, as also the inadequacy of flights during the peak flower export season (between Christmas and Valentine's Day), cause heavy spoilage of export cargoes. It is no wonder then that most of the wholly export-oriented units that have come up at the major floriculture hubs in Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and New Delhi often fail to justify the investments made in them. To add to flower exporters' woes, the procedures for clearance of export cargoes and for phyto-sanitary certification are both tedious and time-consuming. Of late, the strengthening of the rupee against the US dollar has added a new problem. | |
| What is clear, however, is that there is no shortage of global demand for flowers, that floriculture acreage is growing, and that India's flower season is well suited for western markets. Moreover, good international prices during the approaching peak flower consumption season may partly offset the impact of the strong rupee this year. Retail demand in another important flower market, the US, is also reported to be strong, unaffected by the domestic economic concerns there. The problem of course is that little of this market comes to India. |
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| Having recognised all the constraints, it must nevertheless be acknowledged that growing awareness of the constraints is finally spurring some corrective action, even if not exactly in the manner that exporters would want. The first and the foremost task is to revamp the domestic flower marketing system, which currently functions on the basis of a rudimentary infrastructure. There is so far only one modern flower auction centre in the whole country, which functions in Bangalore. Though similar centres are proposed for Mumbai and Noida (on the outskirts of Delhi), these are taking much too long to come up. In any case, even these will not suffice. Export facilitation centres with cold stores and other facilities at the destination markets need to be created in several major export destinations other than the Netherlands, where one such centre already exists. And most importantly, the domestic and international transportation system needs attention, because speed and cost are both problems today. |
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