UDUPI: The scent of the famed Shankarapura jasmine has turned more sweeter for growers. The maximum price for their produce, which used to be Rs 820 for an ‘atte’ (local measure of 3,200 flowers), has been revised to Rs 1,250 now. However, their demand of fixing the minimum price at Rs 300 per atte is yet to be looked into.
Shankarapura jasmine got a GI tag five years ago. There are about eight middlemen who decide the price of Shankarapura jasmine at 11.45am every day. The middlemen receive orders from stalls and vendors. In Shankarapura town, they buy flowers from growers.
When there is excess production, the price hits as low as Rs 60 per atte. During wedding season, the price varies from Rs 520 to Rs 820 per atte. The middlemen, however, never pay over Rs 820 mark to the growers, but customers purchase it from the flower stalls at Rs 1,600 per atte.
Growers had been demanding that the maximum price be increased. From last Saturday, the middlemen agreed to pay maximum Rs 1,250 per atte. Growers, however, have been demanding that the minimum price be fixed at Rs 300 per atte and there should be no cap on maximum price.
Raghavendra Nayak, a jasmine grower in Shirva told Express that not many will be benefitted even though the maximum price has been revised. “Our demand is that the minimum price should be fixed at Rs 300, which would really help us’’.
Udupi Jasmine Growers’ Association president Ramakrishna Sharma Bantakal told Express that the demand for revision of maximum price was made about two years back. The maximum price was fixed at Rs 240 per atte 10 years back. It was revised to Rs 400 six years ago. During 2014, it was increased to Rs 820 and now after a gap of four years, it has been revised, he informed.
Bhuvaneshwari, Deputy Director of Horticulture department, Udupi, told TNIE that efforts are on to form clusters of jasmine growers so that their bargaining power will increase.