KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 26
With the 10-day Dashain festival starting today, florists and nursery operators have their fingers crossed in hopes of better business compared to previous seasons.
However, traders said they were concerned about decrease in demand and production as well as low stakeholder sentiment.
Despite the decrease in imports of plants compared to the first two months of the last fiscal year, the current economic situation of the country has lowered consumers' interest in purchasing flowers for the festive season, stakeholders told The Himalayan Times.
According to the data released by the Department of Customs, the import value of live trees and plants in the first two months of the fiscal year stood at Rs 181.10 million, a slump of over 50 per cent compared to the import value of Rs 362.94 million in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
People across the country choose to purchase flowers and garlands for various purposes during this festive season, with chrysanthemums and marigold being the flowers of choice.
Min Bahadur Tamang, president of Floriculture Association of Nepal (FAN), shared that although there is considerable demand, local production has decreased following the lack of investment by stakeholders after the COVID pandemic. "As many flower growers were denied loans by banks and financial institutions following the interruption in the chain of supply, much of the flowers withered away, adding to the decrease in production. Although the sector is slowly reviving itself and with increasing demand compared to past years, the rate of production has not improved very much," Tamang informed.
According to him, demand for seasonal and pot flowers increase in Dashain compared to normal business days but the demand for marigold and chrysanthemums tend to skyrocket in Tihar.
"Despite the possible increase in demand, flower traders are worried about their yields getting damaged due to the off-season rain. As many as four garlands can be produced from a single marigold plant. We will conduct a survey on the number of plants planted for the Tihar season. As per our data, flowers worth Rs 2.30 billion were sold last year. Sales amounted to Rs 150 million during five days of Tihar last year alone. However, our partners have complained of low demand during the Dashain compared to previous years," he added.
Similarly, Kumar Kusaju Shrestha, operator of Kathmandu Nursery, reiterated that the demand for flowers this festive season is considerably low, adding that consumers are not interested in procuring flowers due to the present economic scenario of the country. "The unstable economy at present following the COVID-19 pandemic and liquidity crisis has affected all business sectors of the country while many are still facing difficulties.
Each year we estimate a growth of 10 to 15 per cent in terms of production and demand. However, we are forced to throw away our produce due to depleting demand of flowers in the market," he said.
The existing policies and programmes of the government have further discouraged business stakeholders. "The flower market has not been able to reestablish its former market stance as the sector is interdependent on the tourism industry, which is also facing hardship in the process of recovery. We estimate our sales to cross one million flowers annually and growth of over 10 per cent. However, the demand for this year's festive season is very low in comparison to the flow of customers last year. Comparing the recent indicators of the market, the market demand is not up to par with last year," he added.
Furthermore, Shrestha also complained that local flowers are less favoured in the market compared to imported flowers.
"Consumers are being supped into thinking that the quality of imported flowers is better than local flowers, which is totally wrong. Although imported flowers are cheaper, domestic flowers are far better in terms of quality," he added.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 27, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
