• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Ch. Prashanth Reddy

HYDERABAD, July 28

AFTER being in the red for the past seven years, floriculture units in the country are stated to have reached the take-off stage. Flower exports from the country, which accounted for Rs 40 crore last year, are expected to register a 25 per cent growth this year, mainly on account of a jump in exports to Australia.

All the logistic bottlenecks in export of flowers have been streamlined, thanks to the initiatives taken by the Union Government in establishment of cold storage units at airports and introduction of direct flights by various airlines to different global destinations.

According to President of the South India Floriculturists Association (SIFA), Mr A. Ramesh, even the technology is completely indigenised and the cost of establishment of a floriculture unit today has steeply declined. Consequently, Indian floriculture units "are now able to compete in the international market".

However, the size of the Indian floriculture industry is very small to make any significant impact in the global flower market, he told Business Line. Floriculture occupies just 200 hectares of the land in the country at present while the minimum size should be over 2,000 hectares if a reasonable number of flowers have to be exported.

He said currently there were about 60 floriculture units, 90 per cent of which were located near Bangalore and Pune. Most of these units have accumulated losses as the cost of their establishment, on account of costly imported technology in the initial phase. Now these units were looking forward for Government support for debt restructuring and expansion of operations so as to become viable. In this regard, SIFA was asking for Rs 50-crore grant from the Technology Development Fund.

The Government, in turn, has appointed a committee, headed by the Director General of Foreign Trade, to go into the aspect of rehabilitation of the existing floriculture units. The committee, comprising representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, banks and financial institutions that have extended loans, RBI and floriculturists, is yet to submit its recommendations.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Trawling ban in force?

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line