Sale of Roses Expected to Decline by Rs 6 million on Valentines’ Day

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Sale of Roses Expected to Decline by Rs 6 million on Valentines’ Day

February 8: The sale of roses is expected to decline by Rs 6 million during this Valentines’ Day, according to the Floriculture Association of Nepal (FAN). The Covid-19 pandemic has affected every sector and flower business remains no exception.  

A report of FAN shows that it had sold roses worth Rs 16 million on Valentines’ Day last year. This year, the sale is expected to be around Rs 10 million only.

Flowers entrepreneurs share that the demand for roses is exceptionally high on February 14. The sale of roses on Valentines’ Day account for the highest sale of the year.

Kumar Kasaju Shrestha, president of FAN, said that the sale of roses is expected to go down this year because of Covid-19 pandemic. According to him, the same kind of enthusiasm like in the past is not visible this year. In the previous years, people used to buy gifts and flowers a week ahead of the Valentines’ Day.

Due to impact of Covid-19, the demand for roses and domestic production has also gone down by 40 percent, informed FAN. There is a demand for 120,000 sticks of roses this year of which 96,000 sticks are being imported from India and the remaining roses are produced within the country.

Besides the festive season, there is a daily demand for 8,000 sticks of roses. Customers have to pay around Rs 60 to Rs 100 per rose stick, says FAN.

Around 72,000 stick of roses are expected to be sold in the Kathmandu Valley alone during Valentine’s Day. Likewise, 48,000 sticks of roses will be sold outside the valley.

Comparison with the past records show that the demand for roses is the lowest this year. The sales data of 2076 show that around 200,000 sticks of roses were consumed on February 14 and 160,000  roses were consumed in the year 2075.

Production of roses is low in the country due to the cold weather so domestic production solely can’t meet the market demand.

According to FAN, Rs 6 billion has been invested into the flower business. Floriculture is done in over 153 hectares of land in 43 districts across the country. Meanwhile commercial farming is done in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kavre and Chitwan only. More than 700 people are involved in flower business and 40 thousand are employed directly or indirectly.

 

 

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