| The flower industry is flowering in Hosur like never before. The first international flower exhibition, hosted by the state government here, has found a new-found market across the world thanks to innovative steps taken by the district administration.
The annual flower show at Hosur is different from its counterparts in Ooty, Kodaikanal and Bangalore. While at those places tourism is the main focus, here the focus is on small farmers in this region, who produce cut flowers.
Cut flowers, worth Rs 25 crore, which are being exported every year from the Hosur region, accounts for 23 percent of the country’s total flower export. Sensing a major developmental scope, the government established a Rs 26-crore floriculture project called TANFLORA at Hosur, which will start producing cut flowers from next year.
But some bottlenecks in flower trading at international level have been removed when the government conducted its first ever International Flower Exhibition in Hosur. The four-day exhibition, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa last Wednesday, has attracted many buyers from across the world.
Apart from local floriculture agents, major flower producers from Israel, Dubai, Holland, France, Australia and Middle East have installed their stalls in the exhibition to market their hi-breed cut flower saplings in India thanks to the arrangements made by TANFLORA.
Krishnagiri Collector M R Sharma said that Hosur had already acquired a place in international industrial map. With this exhibition being successfully hosted, Hosur received a status of prime floriculture zone at the international level.
He said the farmers here are producing more than 50 varieties of flowers including Rose, Gerbera, Gladium, Anthurium, Carnation and Bird of Paradise but the climate here is suitable to produce another 150 varieties.
He also said the Chief Minister had assured the administration of extending all-round support to the farmers in order to project Hosur as country’s floriculture zone. The Chief Minister had directed the district administration to extend technical support to farmers, he added. He also said the steps have been taken for on-line trading thereby helping farmers to sell their products directly to foreign countries. In addition, the district administration had recommended the government to open a permanent flower auction centre, which will be first of its kind in the state.
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