The price of jasmine (malli) seems to remain high over the past few days, thanks to the chilly weather and consecutive auspicious days (muhurtams).
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A kg of jasmine was sold at ₹2,500 at the flower market in Mattuthavani here on Sunday.
M. Arunkumar, a trader who sources the produce from Valayankulam, Alagarkoil, Melur and Kariyapatti said they receive only 20 kg of jasmine instead of the usual inflow of around 1,000 kg.
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“Jasmine does not grow well in this unsuitable cold weather which is why it even shot upto ₹ 5,000 a week ago. The trend is to stay until the end of the Tamil month of Masi (February). After which, plentiful sunshine would favour the jasmine cultivation,” he noted.
Most customers and retail sellers noted that the size of jasmine flower becomes smaller during winters and that they also prefer jathi pichi and mullai priced at ₹1,000 each per kg which is the preferred option after malli.
V. Murugan, a jasmine exporter noted that in order to meet the demands, he procures additional loads of flowers from Aruppukottai, Nilakottai and Dindigul to export to Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and Canada.
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“We used to receive 5 tonnes of jasmine everyday, but now, we receive only 100 kg in the past few weeks. This season always sees a slump in production,” he said.
Meanwhile, customers also bought Madras malli also called karattan poo that does not have any fragrance which was sold for ₹600 per kg.
Hosur’s roses have also been limited in arrival, and one kg of button roses are sold at ₹200. “We used to receive 500 kg everyday, but it has been cut down to 100 kg now,” said G. Vijaykumar, a wholesale rose trader.
P. Bakiraj, a sevvandhi farmer from Thuvarankurichi near Tiruchi said he preferred to sell his produce at this market in Madurai owing to good sales. “Auspicious days jack up the prices as one kg of sevvandhi was sold at ₹80, while it was hovering around ₹50 for the past few days,” he added.