Indigenous flowers meet the market demand in this year's festival: Entrepreneurs

Kathmandu: This year's festival has been postponed for almost a month due to overcrowding. Centipede and velvet flower garlands are consumed during the festival. However, the market is likely to be affected this year due to lack of supply of flowers as the centipede flowers will bloom before the festival.

But businessmen have said that the demand for flowers will be met by indigenous products during the festival.

Due to the extra month, this year's festival has been postponed for almost a month. Therefore, it is estimated that the flower market will be affected this time. It is estimated that the flower market will be affected as the centipede planted by the farmers falls behind the flowering time.

But florists have said that Nepali products will easily meet this year's demand as flowers are cultivated on the basis of the calendar. Kumar Kasaju Shrestha, president of the Floriculture Association of Nepal, said that the flower market would not be affected even if the festival was postponed for 20-22 days due to the extra month. He said that even if the flowers produced by the domestic farmers dry up before the festival, the demand for the festival can be easily met as the commercial production of flowers continues.

About 2.5 million beads were consumed during last year's festival. Out of which velvet garland was 500,000 and centipede garland was 2 million. This year, the demand for flowers is estimated to be low due to the risk of Kovid-19 infection, said Chairman Kasaju. He said that the demand for garlands is estimated to be 1.2 to 1.5 million this year and all the garlands will be supplied from domestic production. This year, the price of flowers has become a bit expensive. According to Chairman Kasaju, a garland of centipede flowers can cost from Rs 60 to Rs 70. Last year, a garland of centipede flowers cost Rs 50 to Rs 60.

Florist Shyam Sundar Prajapati, on the other hand, said that the centipede flowers planted for the festival have blossomed. He also said that some of the flowers have dried up by the time they reach Tihar. He said that there was a problem in preserving the centipede flowers till the festival as the flowers could not bloom as the temperature was getting cold and even the flowers would wither.

Entrepreneurs say that flowers produced in Nepal should not be imported from abroad as they meet the market demand even after Tihar. Entrepreneurs have complained that flowers are imported even when they are self-sufficient due to the understanding that the price of domestic flowers increases when they do not come from other countries. About one million flower garlands were imported from India during last year's festival.