Flower garlands worth Rs 135 million estimated to be sold during Tihar

Kathmandu / Oct 25: Flower garlands worth over Rs 135 million are expected to be sold during the ongoing Tihar festival.

According to the Floriculture Association of Nepal (FAN)’s Chairperson Min Bahadur Tamang, florists are expected to sell garlands worth Rs 2.4 million during the festival of lights and flowers.

“We have estimated that over 2.4 million garlands would be sold during this Tihar. The demand for marigold garlands accounted for Rs 2 million,” Chairperson Tamang said.

The estimated Rs 135 million of transaction of garland of marigold, globe amaranth and other various flowers is based on the wholesale price, shared Tamang. “The actual statistics on the trade of the flowers and garlands would be known after the festival.”

Of the 2.4 garlands demanded, 1.7 million were for marigold and the remaining were for globe amaranth, according to the FAN.

This year around 100,000 globe amaranth garlands were exported from Nepal to various countries including India. The wholesale price for marigold garland is Rs 55 while that of globe amaranth is Rs 40, according to the FAN.

Nepal is gradually becoming self-reliant in marigold flowers and globe amaranth which are widely used during Tihar festival. Tamang, however, said that although the production of marigold and globe amaranth flowers widely used in Tihar was sufficient within the country, businesspersons were importing them from India to gain more profit.

“This year’s production is also sufficient to cater to the demand as we have been producing flowers increasingly each year,” he said, expressing his dismay over the businessperson’s tendencies to import flowers from India to earn more profit. RSS