Karnataka Government to set up Flower Processing Centre

The Horticulture Department of Karnataka and the International Flower Auction Bangalore- IFAB will collaborate to set up a flower processing centre in order to convert unsold flowers into various forms of useful products.

M. Vishwanath, the MD of IFAB and Joint Director of Horticulture informed that the unit will be able to process all kinds of flowers and it will come up at IFAB in March or April 2021.

He added that a large number of flower growers from the state will be benefitted from the unit instead of dumping their produce or abandoning the gardens.

Karnataka has 18,000 hectares of land under flower cultivation. The state accounts for 14% of India’s total area under flower production.

Why the centre is needed?

According to M. Vishwanath, the flower processing centre is important as the flower farmers have been suffering huge losses whenever there is a market disruption, such as when the pandemic hit almost every sector.

He added that the flower growers will be able to learn the art of flower processing from the centre which will help them even growing their business even when the economy is hit.

Flower market worst hit during a pandemic:

During the lockdown all over the country and until September/October 2020, the flower growers had incurred huge losses as they were forced to get rid of thousands of tonnes of marigold, jasmine, tuberose, aster, chrysanthemum, gladiolus, carnations, firecracker, roses, gomphrena, and gerberas.

As per a wholesale dealer at K.R. market and a flower farmer from Doddaballapur, the flower vendors and farmers were worst hit from April to September 2020 as they had no option but to convert the hard-produced into manure.

According to some, the K.R. market in Karnataka is Asia’s largest flower market. The market has over 100 varieties of flowers, including a dozen shades of gerberas and Kanakambara, over two dozen rose varieties and carnations in almost all colors.