The Hindu Business Line : Japan turns fragrant for cut flower exports

Blossoming demand
APEDA to set up market facilitation centre in Japan in a year.
Pink roses in demand from Japan.
Market facilitation centre in Holland gets orders for 3.2 million stems for Valentine's Day.

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Pune Jan. 22 It isn't only the information technology industry that is looking eastwards for growth. Japan is the latest on the radar of Indian floriculturists, who are preparing to tap a market that currently intakes 80 million rose stems annually and is growing.

Potential

Information gathered during the national convention of the Indian Rose Society that concluded in Pune last week, revealed that India has replaced the Netherlands as the second largest suppliers of cut flowers to Japan.

Affirming Japan's potential as the next major export destination, sources within the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) said "feasibility studies on setting up a Market Facilitation Centre (MFC) in Tokyo, along the lines of the one at Amsterdam are nearly complete". The centre is expected to be set-up by next year.

Good growth

The rose-dominated Indian floriculture exports that touched Rs 305 crore for the year ended March 06, are expected to post a 15 per cent growth during this fiscal. The domestic market last year stood at Rs 600 crore.

With logistic and freight issues making export to the US, one of the three major global consumption centres, commercially unviable, the Japanese initiative is seen as a significant development in attaining the "Rs 1,000-crore exports by 2010" target set by APEDA.

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, there's a flurry of activity at the sprawling greenhouses at Talegaon near Pune. The area accounts for around 30 per cent of the total acreage under roses in the country and is "commercially the best in the country", according to APEDA sources.

`Pink' hogs limelight

Here, in addition to meeting the European demand for red roses, the spotlight now is on `pink' roses that are the preferred colour in the Japanese market.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands MFC's order book for Valentine's Day roses for Europe already stands at 3.2 million stems and is expected to touch 5 million stems, a considerable growth over last year's order book of 2.9 million stems. Recently, the centre also clinched an order for the supply of two million rose stems at fixed prices for the 2006 calendar year. Another order for 10 million 50cm roses stems is also reportedly under negotiation.

Interestingly, the unit of the Tata group, which pioneered the foray into floriculture at Talegaon in the early 90s, is no longer in the marketplace.

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