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Vishwanath Kulkarni

BANGALORE July 18

DOMESTIC cutflower exporters are on a comeback trail in Australia. The Indian exporters, who were edged out of the Australian market by the African growers last year, have started making inroads again as exports have picked up slowly in the last four weeks.

Confirming the development, Mr Ramesh, President, South India Floriculture Association, said about half a million stems had been exported to Australia since the beginning of season in mid-June.

"We expect to close the season in August by exporting some two million stems," he added.

CCL Flowers, Karuturi Floritech and Suvarna Florex are the three major growers exporting to Australia.

"The Australians seem to be very receptive to Indian flowers this season, the reason being that they might have realised that over dependence on the African growers doesn't seem to be prudent enough," said Mr K.S. Ramakrishna, Managing Director of Karuturi Floritech. ``However, it is too early to say," he said commenting on the outlook.

Mr Ramesh attributes the improved trend to the increased flight connectivity between Bangalore and Australia.

As against two flights a week, two years ago, there are about eight flights out of Bangalore to Australia directly now. "This has helped us to deliver flowers in good quality," he added.

Earlier, Singapore Airlines operated two flights a week. Now in addition to that Malaysian Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines operate some three flights a week each to Australia, via Kuala Lumpur and Colombo respectively.

"The prices are marginally higher this year and the prices vary for each varieties and growers," said Mr Ramesh. Indian flowers are being sold at 20-30 Australian cents, which translates into Rs 6.50 to Rs 9 a stem, said Mr Ramakrishna. However, the net realisations for the growers were estimated to be around Rs 2.50 per stem, he added.

Australia is a peculiar market where Indian flowers have to fight out with ones from Africa for a market shelf. Traditionally, Zimbabwe and Kenya were the major exporters to Australia. However, India exporters gained a total control of the Australian market, about four years back, when supplies from Africa got affected due to the serious drop in output during that year.

But the Indian growers could not hold on to the position too long. They were edged out of Australia last year, when the African countries came back with a vengeance by slashing prices by more than 50 per cent.

Indian exporters, who could not afford fight the Africans on the price front, had to give up the market last year. Whether, the Indian growers would take full control of the Australian market this year and retain it in the coming years is a thing to be watched.

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