Flower Story

We love flowers for different reasons, let it be for their beauty or scent. In many of our special occasions, we see the use of flowers. In the last decade or so the local demand for flowers has increased significantly. This means more people are now engaging in the lucrative flower business, creating jobs and new opportunities. Many farmers nowadays are concentrating on growing flowers for their livelihood.  The Weekend Independent recently spoke to some flower growers, traders, experts and officials about the present situation of the floral industry or floriculture in our country, where it is headed and steps that can be taken to improve the sector.  

AA Jamal Uddin, a professor at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU), said: "In our country, there are mainly five to six types of flowers that are most in demand. Orchids, roses, marigolds, tuberose, gerbera, gladiolus and tuberoses are the most popular. According to a survey by USAID (United States Agency for International Development), there is Taka 12 billion (1,200 crore) worth of transaction in our flower industry at the moment. Dhaka and Chittagong are the two main cities where most flower sales take place. Most of the flowers are cultivated in Jessore and Jhenaidah districts (in the southwest). And of course, at Savar, a good amount of roses are now being produced.”

“Gerbera is popular in our country and it can be grown throughout the year. Now, one of the problems we are facing cultivating gerbera is that the seedlings are imported from India and there are some allegations that proper import regulations are not being followed. But the main question is why we are not able to grow the seedlings here? The answer is the seedlings we import are second generation and we do not get good quality flowers from them, and their seeds are not good for reproduction. Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) has undertaken a project to produce quality gerbera seedlings in our country. Hopefully, they will find success and I am confident that we will be able to grow gerbera from our own seedlings. Also, post-harvest knowledge of our farmers and flower traders are not that good, and we need to work on that. The system for transporting flowers, like other crops, is not great in our country. In other countries, they have vehicles with cooling systems. Perhaps, introducing such refrigerated vans here can make a difference," Jamal Uddin added.

Imamul Hossain, general secretary of Bangladesh Flower Society, said: "Our organisation is working with businesspeople and flower farmers. We are trying to create a connection between them. I have a flower business and grow different kinds of flowers in Jessore. The name of my business house is Mahdi Flowers. Winter is the best season for flower farmers and businesses associated with this trade. During this season, a number of events, like weddings, and festivals take place, and thus, the demand for flowers increases a lot compared to the rest of the year. In Dhaka, there are mainly two wholesale flower markets. One is Shahbagh Flower Market and the other is Agargaon Flower Market. Flowers from all over the country are collected there. Every year, we can see growth in our flower industry. In a matter of a decade, the sector has grown from Tk1 billion to Tk12 billion. I have been involved in this trade since 1996, so I have witnessed this growth myself.”

“Not long ago, we used to import all sorts of flowers, but gradually, we began to produce some of those flowers in our own country. We import seedlings and seeds from India and other counties, it's true. A few months ago, we imported 500 oriental lily seedlings from the Netherlands. We are trying to grow these kinds of flowers in our country, it will take some time, but we are hopeful we will be able to reproduce them here. We are not able to export flowers yet commercially. For the past two years or so, with the help of flower growers and USAID we have been organising an annual flower fair in the capital. This year, we are planning to hold the fair in March. Last year, the stalls were allotted free of charge and most of them did good business. Many people came to the fair (at Bangla Academy) and that's always a positive sign. This year, the organisers might charge some amount for the stalls," Hossain said.  

"I, personally, tried to export flowers to the Middle East. But after a few times, Indian companies got hold of that business, as they have better transport systems and they can produce flowers at cheaper rates. Another reason is that our knowledge when it comes to taking care of flowers after harvesting is very poor, and we do not have that many flower experts in our country. BRAC (a development organisation) tried to produce some seeds and seedlings, but those didn't produce good quality flowers. Of course, the government is trying its best, but we need more young people with proper knowledge of floriculture to come into this field. To become a member of our organisation, one needs to have contact with both farmers and wholesalers, and they must have Taka 10,000 in their bank account. Other than that, our membership is free in a way," Hossain added.    

Mahbuba Monmon, Additional Deputy Director, Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), said: "The government is taking a number of steps to ensure the growth of our flower industry. At the moment, different types of flowers are being cultivated on 12,000 hectares of land around the country. Twenty districts are producing various kinds of flowers, including marigold, rose, gerbera, gladiolus, jasmine and tuberose. Today, even in Cox’s Bazar many farmers are growing flowers as the tourist hotels there have good demand for them. One of the problems that our farmers face is that there are no organised flower markets. The government has made loans easy for flower growers; they can get loans at only 4 percent interest. We are yet to start commercial export of flowers, but we believe we are slowly heading that way. We sent some flowers on a trial basis to Japan, but at the moment, we are concentrating more on meeting the local demand.”

M Gias Uddin started growing flowers in 1998 at Kaliganj in Jhenaidah. Over the years, he has transformed his business from just producing flowers to buying and selling them. "In the past year, more than 100,000 (10 lakh) marigold seedlings were imported from India. One can truly understand the flower industry by visiting the villages where the flowers are produced. In our area, there are about 40,000 flower farmers. Besides Jhenaidah, different types of flowers are also being produced in Chuadanga. On average, we send four tons of various flowers to Dhaka from Kaliganj wholesale market every day. During winter, the price increases due to high demand, which is natural. But we can never know for sure what the actual price would be the next day. There are mostly three parties involved in this trade _ the flower growers, the middlemen or those who buy the flowers in bulk, and the vendors. In order to develop our flower industry, the best thing we can do at the moment is to improve our transport system. I have an investment of Tk 250,000 in this business. Now, some months I make a profit of Tk 70,000, then again some months, I lose Tk 50,000. Gabtoli (in Dhaka) is the main place where our fresh flowers mainly get stuck. As trucks are not allowed to ply through the capital during the day, so many a times our produce loses shelf life as the transport vehicles wait to enter the city at night,” Gias Uddin said.

Mahbuba Monmon, the DAE official, added: “Transportation is another issue that farmers and traders bring up when we talk to them. It is true we do not have a great transportation system or adequate refrigerated vehicles. That being said, we face the same problem when it comes to other crops. But then, we have seen that using refrigerated vehicles for transporting flowers is not always a good idea. For example, when fresh flowers are transported in chilled vans, their shelf life can decrease. Also, it is not possible to provide such vehicles everywhere. At Gabtoli, there is an office of Department of Agriculture Marketing.  After talking to the people there, we are planning to build a central flower market at Gabtoli. Meanwhile, every air, land and sea port of our country has plant quarantine departments. They ensure whatever we import are soil and disease-free, and the foreign species are not a threat to our environment. Of course, the job they do has to be performed in very fast. We want private companies to come forward to help expand this sector."   

Anindo Flower Shop, located at Shahbagh, has been in business for over two decades. Various types of roses, gladiolus, marigolds, gerbera and daisies can be found in this shop. Ferdose Khan, the present owner, said: "My mother started this business 20 years ago. I was quite young then, now I am running the shop. When we started this business, there were about 20 flower shops here, but now there are many shops. We get our flowers from the wholesale market here. The price of the flowers never stay steady, it goes up and down all the time. Shops that have good contacts with event management companies get to sell more flowers, some of the shops here sell up to Tk 500,000 worth of flowers every day.”

M Iffat Al Rokib, assistant manager (marketing) at Florista.Delivery, an online floral shop, said: "Florista.Delivery is a premier flower and gift delivery service in Bangladesh. At present, we are doing deliveries only within Dhaka city. We understand the divine language of flowers. Our experienced florists offer exclusive designs for weddings. Every month, we deal with 80 to 100 customers from different parts of the capital. We can also arrange flower delivery at midnight to customers on their special occasions. We also have skilled employees who can make customised bouquets as per a customer’s demand. We have an integrated communication system to receive orders from our customers on our website or Facebook page. We offer all kinds of flowers, prices range from Tk 500 to Tk 4,000. We get local flowers from wholesale markets or directly from growers in Jessore and Gazipur. We also use various imported flowers from China, India, Thailand, etc. We guarantee delivery with care to ensure the flowers are fresh when they arrive, ready to put a smile on someone's face."  

Red Circle Wedding is an event management company, established in 2014. Imran Khan, a co-owner, said: "When we get a large order to decorate a stage, we collect flowers from Agargaon flower market. The price of the flowers and stage decoration depends on the client's preference. Some may just want the stage to be adorned with red roses, while some may prefer white roses only. During winter, many wedding functions take place, so we get many orders during this time of the year. On average every month, we receive 15 work orders. We have designers who help the clients with stage designs. First, we ask the clients to give us a theme for decoration. For a wedding or a birthday party, we receive different types of design ideas. If it's a corporate event, they usually give us the exact design they want. In a nutshell, when it comes to weddings and other family-oriented events, our designers get to work more freely. We use artificial flowers as well, as it costs less.”

Photos: Fayez Ahmed

 (in Jessore), File.

Flower Story

We love flowers for different reasons, let it be for their beauty or scent. In many of our special occasions, we see the use of flowers. In the last decade or so the local demand for flowers has increased significantly. This means more people are now engaging in the lucrative flower business, creating jobs and new opportunities. Many farmers nowadays are concentrating on growing flowers for their livelihood. The Weekend Independent recently spoke to some flower growers, traders, experts and officials about the present situation of the floral industry or floriculture in our country, where it is headed and steps that can be taken to improve the sector. AA Jamal Uddin, a professor at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU), said: In our country, there are mainly five to six types of flowers that are most in demand. Orchids, roses, marigolds, tuberose, gerbera, gladiolus and tuberoses are the most popular. According to a survey by USAID (United States Agency for International Development), there is Taka 12 billion (1,200 crore) worth of transaction in our flower industry at the moment. Dhaka and Chittagong are the two main cities where most flower sales take place. Most of the flowers are cultivated in Jessore and Jhenaidah districts (in the southwest). And of course, at Savar, a good amount of roses are now being produced. Gerbera is popular in our country and it can be grown throughout the year. Now, one of the problems we are facing cultivating gerbera is that the seedlings are imported from India and there are some allegations that proper import regulations are not being followed. But the main question is why we are not able to grow the seedlings here? The answer is the seedlings we import are second generation and we do not get good quality flowers from them, and their seeds are not good for reproduction. Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) has undertaken a project to produce quality gerbera seedlings in our country. Hopefully, they will find success and I am confident that we will be able to grow gerbera from our own seedlings. Also, post-harvest knowledge of our farmers and flower traders are not that good, and we need to work on that. The system for transporting flowers, like other crops, is not great in our country. In other countries, they have vehicles with cooling systems. Perhaps, introducing such refrigerated vans here can make a difference, Jamal Uddin added. Imamul Hossain, general secretary of Bangladesh Flower Society, said: Our organisation is working with businesspeople and flower farmers. We are trying to create a connection between them. I have a flower business and grow different kinds of flowers in Jessore. The name of my business house is Mahdi Flowers. Winter is the best season for flower farmers and businesses associated with this trade. During this season, a number of events, like weddings, and festivals take place, and thus, the demand for flowers increases a lot compared to the rest of the year. In Dhaka, there are mainly two wholesale flower markets. One is Shahbagh Flower Market and the other is Agargaon Flower Market. Flowers from all over the country are collected there. Every year, we can see growth in our flower industry. In a matter of a decade, the sector has grown from Tk1 billion to Tk12 billion. I have been involved in this trade since 1996, so I have witnessed this growth myself. Not long ago, we used to import all sorts of flowers, but gradually, we began to produce some of those flowers in our own country. We import seedlings and seeds from India and other counties, its true. A few months ago, we imported 500 oriental lily seedlings from the Netherlands. We are trying to grow these kinds of flowers in our country, it will take some time, but we are hopeful we will be able to reproduce them here. We are not able to export flowers yet commercially. For the past two years or so, with the help of flower growers and USAID we have been organising an annual flower fair in the capital. This year, we are planning to hold the fair in March. Last year, the stalls were allotted free of charge and most of them did good business. Many people came to the fair (at Bangla Academy) and thats always a positive sign. This year, the organisers might charge some amount for the stalls, Hossain said. I, personally, tried to export flowers to the Middle East. But after a few times, Indian companies got hold of that business, as they have better transport systems and they can produce flowers at cheaper rates. Another reason is that our knowledge when it comes to taking care of flowers after harvesting is very poor, and we do not have that many flower experts in our country. BRAC (a development organisation) tried to produce some seeds and seedlings, but those didnt produce good quality flowers. Of course, the government is trying its best, but we need more young people with proper knowledge of floriculture to come into this field. To become a member of our organisation, one needs to have contact with both farmers and wholesalers, and they must have Taka 10,000 in their bank account. Other than that, our membership is free in a way, Hossain added. Mahbuba Monmon, Additional Deputy Director, Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), said: The government is taking a number of steps to ensure the growth of our flower industry. At the moment, different types of flowers are being cultivated on 12,000 hectares of land around the country. Twenty districts are producing various kinds of flowers, including marigold, rose, gerbera, gladiolus, jasmine and tuberose. Today, even in Coxs Bazar many farmers are growing flowers as the tourist hotels there have good demand for them. One of the problems that our farmers face is that there are no organised flower markets. The government has made loans easy for flower growers; they can get loans at only 4 percent interest. We are yet to start commercial export of flowers, but we believe we are slowly heading that way. We sent some flowers on a trial basis to Japan, but at the moment, we are concentrating more on meeting the local demand. M Gias Uddin started growing flowers in 1998 at Kaliganj in Jhenaidah. Over the years, he has transformed his business from just producing flowers to buying and selling them. In the past year, more than 100,000 (10 lakh) marigold seedlings were imported from India. One can truly understand the flower industry by visiting the villages where the flowers are produced. In our area, there are about 40,000 flower farmers. Besides Jhenaidah, different types of flowers are also being produced in Chuadanga. On average, we send four tons of various flowers to Dhaka from Kaliganj wholesale market every day. During winter, the price increases due to high demand, which is natural. But we can never know for sure what the actual price would be the next day. There are mostly three parties involved in this trade _ the flower growers, the middlemen or those who buy the flowers in bulk, and the vendors. In order to develop our flower industry, the best thing we can do at the moment is to improve our transport system. I have an investment of Tk 250,000 in this business. Now, some months I make a profit of Tk 70,000, then again some months, I lose Tk 50,000. Gabtoli (in Dhaka) is the main place where our fresh flowers mainly get stuck. As trucks are not allowed to ply through the capital during the day, so many a times our produce loses shelf life as the transport vehicles wait to enter the city at night, Gias Uddin said. Mahbuba Monmon, the DAE official, added: Transportation is another issue that farmers and traders bring up when we talk to them. It is true we do not have a great transportation system or adequate refrigerated vehicles. That being said, we face the same problem when it comes to other crops. But then, we have seen that using refrigerated vehicles for transporting flowers is not always a good idea. For example, when fresh flowers are transported in chilled vans, their shelf life can decrease. Also, it is not possible to provide such vehicles everywhere. At Gabtoli, there is an office of Department of Agriculture Marketing. After talking to the people there, we are planning to build a central flower market at Gabtoli. Meanwhile, every air, land and sea port of our country has plant quarantine departments. They ensure whatever we import are soil and disease-free, and the foreign species are not a threat to our environment. Of course, the job they do has to be performed in very fast. We want private companies to come forward to help expand this sector. Anindo Flower Shop, located at Shahbagh, has been in business for over two decades. Various types of roses, gladiolus, marigolds, gerbera and daisies can be found in this shop. Ferdose Khan, the present owner, said: My mother started this business 20 years ago. I was quite young then, now I am running the shop. When we started this business, there were about 20 flower shops here, but now there are many shops. We get our flowers from the wholesale market here. The price of the flowers never stay steady, it goes up and down all the time. Shops that have good contacts with event management companies get to sell more flowers, some of the shops here sell up to Tk 500,000 worth of flowers every day. M Iffat Al Rokib, assistant manager (marketing) at Florista.Delivery, an online floral shop, said: Florista.Delivery is a premier flower and gift delivery service in Bangladesh. At present, we are doing deliveries only within Dhaka city. We understand the divine language of flowers. Our experienced florists offer exclusive designs for weddings. Every month, we deal with 80 to 100 customers from different parts of the capital. We can also arrange flower delivery at midnight to customers on their special occasions. We also have skilled employees who can make customised bouquets as per a customers demand. We have an integrated communication system to receive orders from our customers on our website or Facebook page. We offer all kinds of flowers, prices range from Tk 500 to Tk 4,000. We get local flowers from wholesale markets or directly from growers in Jessore and Gazipur. We also use various imported flowers from China, India, Thailand, etc. We guarantee delivery with care to ensure the flowers are fresh when they arrive, ready to put a smile on someones face. Red Circle Wedding is an event management company, established in 2014. Imran Khan, a co-owner, said: When we get a large order to decorate a stage, we collect flowers from Agargaon flower market. The price of the flowers and stage decoration depends on the clients preference. Some may just want the stage to be adorned with red roses, while some may prefer white roses only. During winter, many wedding functions take place, so we get many orders during this time of the year. On average every month, we receive 15 work orders. We have designers who help the clients with stage designs. First, we ask the clients to give us a theme for decoration. For a wedding or a birthday party, we receive different types of design ideas. If its a corporate event, they usually give us the exact design they want. In a nutshell, when it comes to weddings and other family-oriented events, our designers get to work more freely. We use artificial flowers as well, as it costs less. Photos: Fayez Ahmed (in Jessore), File.