Sustained flower exports need of the hour: APEDA

With the advantage of climate, arable land and skilled man-power, India has a high potential for production and export of cut flowers. But to convert the potential into a reality, Indian floriculture has far to go.

The export-oriented production of cut flowers in India started late. It is ten years old but is still in its nascent stage. Although there is a large market available, the Indian floriculture industry fails to generate the credible minimum volume required for sustained exports.

The global trade in floriculture products is worth $9.4 billion and with an 8 per cent growth, it is expected to grow to $16 billion by 2010.

India's share in world trade is a miniscule 0.18 per cent. The supply side of world floriculture trade is dominated by the Netherlands contributing 32 per cent to the global production, followed by Japan, Italy, Israel and Kenya.

The consumption markets are Europe, Japan and USA. With 59 per cent of the global exports, Holland leads the export market followed by Columbia and Italy.

In India cut flowers "" rose contributing 95 per cent of exports "" are exported from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Exports grew from Rs 18.8 crore in 1993-94 to Rs 249.5 crore in 2003-04. Cut flowers worth Rs 73 crore were exported to the USA, followed by UK (Rs 28 crore) and Netherlands (Rs 27 crore).

The export performance of floriculture products for 2003-04 show that 71 per cent of the India?s exports were from dried flowers and plants, followed by 18 per cent fresh cut flowers.

India faces a major challenge in terms of infrastructure and awareness among small producers. "The main feature of Indian floriculture is producers are small and fragmented," said K S Money, chairman, APEDA.

He said that APEDA, along with a few state governments, has been trying to develop infrastructure facilities for exporters and also create awareness among small scale producers who find it difficult to reach the market with the perishable goods.

APEDA, in its effort to remove infrastructural bottlenecks, has set up integrated facilities for handling and storage of export cargo at international airports. It has also approved the setting up of market-cum-auction centres for exports at Bangalore, Mumbai and Noida. The Bangalore project is worth Rs 10.37 crore with the APEDA contributing Rs 3.57 crore.

APEDA has also set up a market facilitation centre in Aalsameer, Netherlands. The establishment of this centre has reduced rejection, improved quality and presentation of exports.

The shipment window which was earlier five months (from November to March) has been extended to eight months(October to May). In April 2005, a pilot project for supply of three pallets per week from a consortium of growers was started.

APEDA has also set up AEZs (Agri Export Zones) in Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Sikkim. Money said that although the North-East has a very high potential for floriculture, the infrastructural bottlenecks are also equally high. A proposal to set up a floriculture project in Mizoram is being actively considered.

In order to boost exports of flowers and increase its share in the agriculture segment, APEDA along with Media Today, the publisher of floriculture magazine is organising Flora Expo 2005 in Bangalore from tomorrow.