Valentine’s season of 2025 is probably the first in Hosur’s recent history of romance with flowers, when domestic market’s premium prices for the famed roses have trumped exports despite a prevailing overseas demand. The seasons’ high profile exporters here too have turned inward, local, given the premium price for roses and flowers disincentivising export hassles.
For Hosur’s farmers, the season had been rife with challenges including production fall by half due to disease impact from downy mildew, blind shoots and premature harvests. However, in the end, the domestic market has come to the rescue undercutting even the routine exporters gaze at the international market for Valentine’s Day orders.
On the international scene this year, the Chinese New Year that usually falls proximally to Valentine’s Day - forcing Indian exporters to compete with Chinese flowers that flood the markets of Singapore and Malaysia, the traditional markets for Hosur’s roses – however fell on February 2, exhausting Chinese flowers. This had pushed up the demand for the roses from here. However, the orders from Muslim countries went down with February 14 falling on Friday, a weekly holiday, spelling less orders from these countries, says Bala Siva Prasad, president of Hosur Association of Small Farmers and Director of National Horticulture Board.
But, the net outcome has been high export orders amid an overall fall in production from Hosur. Parallelly, the domestic prices shot up responding to the low supply and high demand, largely due to two reasons. One is the ongoing valarpirai muhurtam season ringing in auspicious celebrations; second is the role of the online flower delivery platforms.
“If the export price per stem of red rose ranged between ₹18 and ₹24; and those of colour roses between ₹16 and ₹20 per stem; the domestic prices are not far behind.
The domestic price of red roses per stem ranged between ₹15 and ₹22 and those of colour roses per stem between ₹14 and ₹18,” says Mr. Bala Siva Prasad.
Game-changer
Online flower delivery platforms have played a game-changer this year, pushing up the domestic prices closer to the export prices. Premium online delivery platforms such as Ferns and Petals, Zepto, IGP, Poolwala, Interflora are among the main players.
These platforms have purchased orders for 75 lakh stems to 80 lakh stem flowers, lending their help with domestic premium prices making the export margins poor, says an exporter.
As of Monday, with less flowers, the major exporters are just packing off daily harvests to traders at farm gates than putting them away for cold storage for exports in the final days running upto February 14. “There is daily harvesting and daily immediate sales. There are no flowers. Besides, it makes less economic sense to store the stems, grade them, package them with premium packaging and export and then wait for credit till sometime,” says Mr. Siva Prasad.
“The domestic sales is based on “cash and carry” on the same day and at a premium price this year.
“This is actually the first year where the domestic consumption is higher than the export, with us consciously skipping export market for the domestic,” he explains.
This is evident in the absolute numbers. Last year, over 30 lakh stems were export. This year, it was halved to a mere 16 lakh stems. His own shipments go thrice a week to Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai and Valentine Day shipment of 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh stems. However, he has only sent 40,000 stems, diverting the rest to meet the domestic demand.
Arun of Bagalur, who sells in chrysanthemums to the domestic market echoes the sentiment of a good domestic price dissuading exports. However, he like a few other farmers feel, this premium domestic price could have been turned into a windfall for farmers if the International Flower Auction Center that set shop in 2023 was ‘proactive’.
“If the auction center had actually been functioning and active, we could have pushed up the prices for all farmers uniformly and for all qualities of flowers,” adds Mr. Bala Siva Prasad.
In this, the role of theInternational Flowe r Auction Center, Hosur, has only been peripheral. The Center itself has traded only 48,840 stems at ₹11.80 per stem this Valentine’s season as of February 10. “There is a preexisting bond between farmers and traders here, which is a barrier the Center cannot breach or penetrate as yet,” says an official source. “We serve as a mediator between the trader and farmer and only those farmers with excess to spare come here. This is an infant center and yet to grow,” says the official source.
Published - February 11, 2025 08:34 pm IST
