The sudden steep fall in the price of flowers in the Poosaripatti and Paramathivelur markets, the major flower markets of the western region, has caused anxiety to a large number of farmers. Farmers of Thalavaipatti, Jodukadu, Payurankadu, Bommidi, Melputhur, Kaarolli, Sinnatirupathi, and Kanjanayakkanpatti villages have raised flowers in large areas and they were marketed through Poosaripatti market.
Traders from even the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, apart from those of Puducherry, Namakkal, Tirupur, Tiruchi, and Thanjavur visit the Poosaripatti market for fetching flowers in bulk.
Due to the prevailing drought conditions, the arrival of flowers has dropped to a large extent in the recent past – 25 tonnes per day last month to 10-15 tonnes at present.
The price of flowers has fallen drastically. The price of nattu samanthi has come down to Rs. 30 per kg from Rs. 100 – Rs. 150; kathiripoo to Rs. 5- Rs. 10 per kg from Rs. 100; and gundu malli to Rs. 400 from Rs. 1,000 per kg. The sanna malli is priced at Rs. 400 per kg and white samanthi Rs. 40. According to P. Kandasamy of PKS wholesale flower merchant, Poosaripatti is a major market, which attracts more than 500 flower farmers every day. About six lorries of flowers are transported to Bengaluru from the market every day. The steep fall in the price has affected the entire economy of the region, he said.
The Paramathivelur market in the neighbouring Namakkal district attract flowers raised by the farmers of Anna nagar, Kabilarmalai, Paramathi, Ellaimedu, Karasapalayam, Sengapalli, Periyasozhipalayam, Kunjampalayam etc. Farmers got a good price for the flowers during the auction held on Saturday. However, the sudden fall in the price of all varieties of flowers during the auction held on Monday has shocked the local farmers. The price of gundu malli has come down to Rs. 500 per kg from Rs. 3,000 on Saturday. Even though the farmers had brought huge stock of flowers, there were not many takers, traders said.
