Kathmandu, May 25

The flower business in the country has been booming in recent times, thanks to the increasing demand of fresh flowers for interior decoration in houses in city areas.

Florists in the country have said that demand for fresh flowers for interior decoration has increased by almost 20 per cent in the domestic market in recent years thereby promoting the floriculture business in the country.

“In the past couple of years, city dwellers have developed a trend of using flowers and other plants to decorate their houses,” said Dilip Bade, senior-vice president of Floriculture Association of Nepal (FAN), adding that people are increasingly using flowers to decorate their houses, hotels and offices.

According to florists, consumption of ornamental flowers (flower plants) for decorative purposes is on the rise also due to the awareness that has developed among people that flower plants not only add to the interior beauty of houses, but also help to keep the interior environment of offices, homes and hotels fresh by purifying the air.

“Due to such awareness, the demand for ornamental flowers has been rising in modern city houses, restaurants and hotels,” added Bade.

Following the increasing demand of flowers for interior decorations, florists have been supplying different variety of ornamental flowers for usage in offices, hotels, restaurants, kitchen, dining room and living room inside houses.

As per florists, those who used flowers earlier to decorate the exterior of their houses like in terraces have now switched towards using ornamental flowers inside their houses. Following increasing use of fresh flowers for interior decoration, they also claim the demand for artificial flowers for interior decoration has come down drastically.

Florists also said that increasing consumption of flowers for interior decoration would significantly contribute to the

floriculture business in the country.

“High demand of flowers has encouraged florists to increase their production. We should promote the use of fresh flowers for decoration purposes rather than artificial materials,” said Kumar Kasaju Shrestha, president of FAN, adding that the demand for fresh flowers in the domestic market is increasing by 20 per cent per annum since the last couple of years.

Meanwhile, florists have expressed their confidence that Nepal will become self-reliant on flower production within the next three years. According to FAN, almost 20 per cent of the demand of flowers in the domestic market is being imported from India. “If the government supports floriculture industry by bringing a few programmes to promote the industry, we will completely substitute flower import,” said Bade.

According to FAN, almost 675 entrepreneurs across the country are currently involved in the floriculture business. Floriculture occupies more than 147 hectares of land across 39 districts in the country and has annual turnover of over Rs 1.5 billion, FAN officials said.