Hosur (Tamil Nadu): Come Valentine's Day and thousands of lovers around the world will convey their feelings with the never-withering symbol of love – a rose – albeit with a 'Made in India' tag.
A month ahead of February 14, orders are pouring in from around the world for roses grown in southern India's floral corridor that spreads from Hosur in northwestern Tamil Nadu to neighbouring Bangalore.
Nearly 50-odd farms, growing roses on hundred of acres of land between Hosur and Bangalore, are besieged with orders from as far as Europe, Australia and Japan.
"We have recently received orders for one million roses from Australia for Valentine's Day. Besides, there are heavy bookings from European countries," managing director of Tanflora Infrastructure Park Ltd, Najeeb Ahmed, said.
Spread over 50 hectares of land in Amudagondapalli village near Hosur town, Tanflora is Asia's largest rose production centre, growing 37.5 million roses every year.
Promoted by the Tamil Nadu government, Tanflora is one of the pioneering cooperative rose farming ventures in India, in which 25 floriculturists grow roses in green houses set up on two hectares of land each.
A one-hectare farm can grow as many as 70,000 rose plants. And each plant gives at least 20 to 22 flowers every year in ideal "glass house" conditions.
The demand on Valentine' Day is for mainly red roses. However, the Japanese seem to prefer pastilles and pick pink roses while hot pink, yellow and orange roses from here find buyers at major flower auction centres in Holland and Germany.
The global flower industry is dominated by Holland, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the market share. But India, with its comparatively cheaper priced flowers, is slowly asserting its presence.
Indian roses cost anything from Rs 8 per rose to Rs 40. The longer the stem of the rose, the costlier it gets. A 40-cm rose is priced at less than Rs 10 while one-metre roses fetch up to Rs 40 apiece.
"For Valentine's Day, our roses are already sold out," says RD Reddy of Meghna Floritech Ltd, which has a six-hectare farm on the Kunegal road near Bangalore.
A former chief conservator of forests of Andhra Pradesh, Reddy, who took to floriculture after retirement, adds, "There is at least a 30 percent increase in rose exports for Valentine's Day."
Rose plants require a land elevation of 900 to 1,000 metres above sea level and therefore Hosur-Bangalore floral corridor and Pune – another major cut flower producing region – are suitable for rose production.
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