While rose has been more of a symbolic flower mainly identifying itself with the portrayal of love, its history is largely documented through fossil evidence and mythology. Going by fossil study, the rose seems to be 35 million years old. The medieval Christians have identified five petals of the rose with the five wounds of Christ. In Rome, a wild rose used to be placed on the door of a room where secret or confidential matters were discussed.
In mythology, that too Greek, it is stated that Aphrodite gave rose the name, but the goddess of flower, Chloris created it. According to Hindu mythology, Brahma (the creator of the world) and Vishnu (the protector of the world) had a debate over whether the lotus was more beautiful than the rose.
Vishnu backed the rose, while Brahma supported the lotus. But Brahma had never seen a rose before and when he did he immediately recanted. As a reward Brahma created a bride for Vishnu and called her Lakshmi - she was created from 108 large and 1008 small rose petals.
Today, there are over 30,000 varieties of roses and it has the most complicated family tree of any known flower species. They account for almost ninety percent of the domestic consumption of uncut flowers in India.
Considering the immense demand of flowers as such, the International Flower Auction Bangalore Limited (IFAB), a Bangalore-based company was established to streamline the demand and supply in an organised fashion.
“In India, roses have always been a fascination. And, they are used for a variety of decorative purposes. It is extremely necessary for us to tap into the potential of both export and domestic flower market. Being a tropical country, India is a treasure house of ornamental flowers.
Today, around thirty percent of the flowers auctioned at IFAB are sent to Delhi, another thirty percent to Hyderabad and ten percent to Kolkata.
Usually, the demand for flowers goes up during festivals or even the wedding season.
Apart from roses, carnations, gerberas, anthuriums, bird of paradise, heliconia, tuberose, gladioli, orchids and lilium are also sold by the farmers at the auction centre,” said Dr Shankar Murthy, Assistant Director, Department of Horticulture and in-charge General Manager, IFAB.
Bangalore is an ideal ground for roses because of its climate (surprisingly, it is still). “We have some of the best quality roses growing in and around the city. With farmers deploying scientific techniques to get a better yield, the flower market in Bangalore has changed dramatically over the years.
Floriculture is a hundred billion dollar market globally today. There is a lot of scope for entrepreneurship through rose in India,” said Murthy. Floriculture was introduced to Bangalore in 1993.
Earlier, there weren’t any markets in the city where floriculture was practised in ‘advanced’ units. Soon, the growers involved in ‘hi-tech floriculture’ approached the government of Karnataka to create an appropriate market facility.
And, the rest as they say is history. With massive weather fluctuation observed this year, flower production seems to have been affected this year, but not the rose. According to Dr Shankar Murthy, there was a shortage of supply (around 30 to 40 per cent) in the previous year.
However, on the back of ‘favourable weather conditions’ this year, the production as well as demand for roses has risen “I would say the year has been good for both growers as well as buyers so far.
But with the onset of Ashada, the market could be hit. Since Ashada is considered inauspicious for any new venture, the demand for flowers maybe on an all-time low. However, prices of roses vary according to market fluctuation.
If the annual average is taken into consideration, then the cost of each stem stands at Rs 3. These roses are auctioned for Rs 1 to Rs 18 depending on the season. We try to avoid middle-men as much as possible,” he added.
Storage process:
Once the flowers are harvested, they should be dispatched and distributed immediately. Any sort of delay will deteriorate the quality of the flowers at a rapid pace. Since, the commodity being dealt with is highly perishable; an effective system needs to be put in place. “On an average, we receive one lakh flowers per day. Sometimes, the numbers drop to 80,000 and there are times when it goes upto 4 lakh.
It all depends on the market demand and supply,” said Murthy. Specially-cut flowers require an efficient and reliable cold storage facility that will ensure a prolonged life. Usually, there are seven sections which are constructed based on utility. First, the flowers sent by growers are received at the in-dock or receiving dock. Then, they are run through the segregation unit.
Here, the quality and quantity are manually checked by skilled workers. All the details are verified with the delivery chalan and in case of any discrepancies; a new one is issued. The quality check procedures are performed at the grading area where parameters like stem length, freshness, colour, variety and bud size are tested.
Once these procedures are carried out, they are transferred to cold storage units. “The flowers are kept in the storage units overnight. At 8. 15 am, they are taken out for auction. The auction starts at 8.30 am every day and goes on till 1. 30 pm. However, during special occasions like Valentine’s Day, it may go on till 10 pm. Our potential clients range from footpath sellers, to professional traders and exporters. Under controlled conditions, the waste life of a rose is fourteen to fifteen days. Of course, humidity and moisture content in the atmosphere have to be taken into consideration. In uncontrolled conditions, it will last for six to seven days,” said Murthy.
Issues: Some of the major issues that the floriculture sector faces in Bangalore today include lack of skilled workers. Since it requires a high understanding of quality and other factors that affect the freshness gradient of a flower, workers have to be trained for packaging and storage. “This is a perennial issue faced by all floriculturists, growers and clients and needs to be addressed immediately.
There are some traders in the industry today who don’t have any professional knowledge in floriculture. They are tarnishing the entire industry. Today, around 8 to 9 lakh flowers are produced every day in and around Bangalore in places like Doddaballapur, Nelamangala, Hoskote, Annekal and Kanakpura. However, most of the growers rely on the open market and suffer huge losses.
We would like to explore the opportunity of training unemployed youth, housewives or need-based professionals in future to educate them about the entire process,” opined Murthy
■ Auction:
IFAB has deployed ‘Dutch auction’ system in which the Digital Auction Clock runs in the decreasing order and the price per stem reduces from maximum to minimum. The minimum/ base price is fi xed by the grower / supplier while the maximum price is fi xed by IFAB, considering the demand for fl owers.
Only the registered sellers and buyers are allowed to participate in the auction. The auction starts at 8. 30 am everyday and runs till the stock is cleared.
One special feature is that the auction on all 365 days in a order to help sellers buyers in maintaining continuity in their business. wide range of fl owers available though the IFAB auction clocks on a daily basis. Approximately, 1,000 auction transactions are observed every day.
IFAB is also planning to deploy following types of advanced auction systems to attract more new buyers located at faraway places.
■ Remote Buying:
In order to take advantage of new market demand, economic developments and technological possibilities, IFAB invests a great deal in the system of sale through the clock. For example, IFAB offers dealers sophisticated facilities for online buying: Remote Buying. With the help of such services as Remote Buying, IFAB is able to attract an increasing number of (international) buyers to the auction. And the stronger the ‘purchasing power’, the more attractive it is for growers to trade their products through IFAB.
■ Image auctioning: In the case of image auctioning, fl owers no longer appear in front of the clock but photographs of the products are displayed in the auction rooms.
The main advantage is that fl owers and plants can be taken out of the cold stores to the customer immediately after they are sold.
Why the demand for roses?
While Anthurium, a type of decorative fl ower also called Flamingo Flower, costs Rs 15 to Rs 25 (per fl ower), the price of rose ranges from Rs 1 to Rs 3.
5. Moreover, in case of roses, the yield per plant is more. In the whole year, anthurium get twelve fl owers per plant and 2 to 3 fl owers can be harvested per day from one plant. However, 1,500 to 2,000 fl owers can be harvested in one acre of a rose unit per year and if the management is good it can go up to 3,000.
With anthurium, the numbers stand at 100. Also, rose has much more signifi cance in history and mythology than any other fl ower, across the world. So its acceptance for any aspect of life is much more dominant.
