It’s boom time now for nurseries in Kadiyam mandal of East Godavari district. The nurseries, which were hitherto popular all over the country, have now caught the global attention what with the increase in demand for saplings in the international market, a fact that can be gauged from the frequent visits being made to the area by landscaping experts from various countries.
Nursery-growers in Kadiyam mandal are exporting various varieties of plants to other countries. Recently, the Adi Lakshmi Nursery of Kadiyapulanka exported one lakh plants of different species in 13 air-conditioned containers and bouganvilla saplings in eight containers to Qatar.
Around 60,000 to one lakh plants can be loaded in each container of the capacity of 25 metric tonnes. A temperature of 16 degrees Celsius is maintained in the containers to retain freshness. First, the containers are sent to the ports at Kolkata and Mumbai and from there they are exported to Qatar. It takes three days for the containers to reach Kolkata or Mumbai and another 20 days from there to reach Qatar or Kuwait, their final destination.
The recent consignment is meant for a landscaping project at Qatar Airport. The saplings are also being planted at Doha, the Capital of Qatar where the World Cup Soccer Tournament is going to be conducted in the year 2022. Qatar had earlier imported plants from Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kiong, Singapore and New Zealand. With the growing demand for nurseries at Kadiyapulanka, India too has joined the elite group of nations.
Speaking to TNIE, proprietor of the Adi Lakshmi Nursery, Siddireddy Satti Babu said the export orders would further encourage the nurseries in Kadiyam mandal. “As more ships are available in Mumbai and Kolkata, we are exporting the plants from there. We are not preferring Visakhapatnam as only one ship goes to Qatar from there and the voyage is longer by 10 days”, he added.
He said the cost of transportation of each container to Qatar or Kuwait was `3 lakh.