KATHMANDU, Nov 7: An excess import of flowers has led to large quantities of domestically produced flowers going to waste during this Tihar, which made the domestic farmers face heavy financial losses.
Without considering the local produce, traders imported an excess amount of Marigold garlands from India, according to the Floriculture Association Nepal (FAN). “Although the local produce was expected to meet the festive demand by up to 85 percent, traders imported around 30 percent of the market demand, which led to wastage of around 15 percent of the domestic products,” reads a press statement released by the umbrella organization on Sunday.
Disaster losses, import embargo to cause shortage of marigold i...
Marigold (Sayapatri), Globosa (Makhamali) and Chrysanthemum (Godavari) are among the flowers that are highly demanded during Tihar. In five days of Tihar that concluded on Saturday, around 1.86 million units of garland made of these three flowers were traded, up from 1.60 million units of last year’s demand.
More than 1.81 million units of Marigold garlands worth Rs 127 million were sold out in this year’s Tihar. Of the amount, around 30 percent were imported before the commencement of Tihar, said FAN. Due to this reason, the price dropped as low as Rs 70 per garland, leaving the local farmers without good prices for their products.
This year, the commercial farming of Marigold has been done in 32 districts of the country. The recent floods devastated the flower’s production in Province 2, Bagmati Province, Lumbini Province, Gandaki Province and Sudur Paschim Province.
Likewise, 305,000 units of garlands made of Globosa, worth Rs 16.77 million were sold out. FAN recorded the transaction of 15,000 units of Chrysanthemum garlands worth Rs 5.25 million. Nepal also exported 100,000 units of Globosa garlands worth Rs 3 million for the festival.
