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Flowers symbolize beauty and serenity. Right from the Garden of Eden down to the green grocers' basket, flowers have been regarded as an embodiment of human taste and aesthesis. Flowers inspired great songs to be composed, great souls to be unfolded and great feelings to be expressed. This unique and unparalleled nature of flowers has given rise to its commercial transaction all over the world and Bangladesh has ventured to enter this expanding export market.

No one could think of exporting Bangladeshi flowers even a few years ago. But this a reality today and a prosperous bonanza for tomorrow.

According to The “Daily Star” Fulpur of Mymensingh district is now justifying its name by exporting flowers to Britain, Italy and Thailand. The flowers will go to the Middle East soon.

In Bangla, ful means flower.

Using simple indigenous method, each farmer earned Tk 35,000 to 45,000 in a season (three to seven months) by producing exportable flowers, thereby fetching valuable foreign exchange for the country also.

The tremendous success has been achieved in only one year.

But as in Western countries, they do not contribute to warming up the atmosphere by erecting 'green house' and using environment-damaging technology.

Guptargonj village is eight kilometers from Fulpur upazila headquarter in Mymensingh district. It is a small village with about 70 farming families. Forty of them cultivate eight foreign varieties of flowers. The village gives a different look. Big polythene sheds in the courtyards or on nearby high lands will draw anybody's attention. A shed is six to seven feet high, ten to twelve feet wide and 200 to 250 feet long. A farmer has eight to ten sheds.

Inside, there are numerous flower pants, grown in rows, some with flowers and some yet to bear flower. They grow Rose, Orchid, Gerbera, Gipsufila, Lily, Chrysanthemum, Carnation and Philodendron (leaf).

Flower cultivators Rafiqul Islam and Shahidullah Fraji said they earned Tk 42,000 and Tk 35,000 respectively in seven months. Abul Hashem said he earns about Tk 6,000 per month by growing flower. It takes three to seven months from plantation to harvest, depending on the variety. They said they took to flower cultivation with the assistance of BRAC.

Lokman Hossen, Programme Officer for the flower project at the local BRAC office, told this correspondent that 40 farmers earned about Tk 17 lakh by selling flowers. The project was launched in the village in November 2002. BRAC selected 40 families and gave them Tk 80 lakh loans. The project involved Tk one crore. Local and foreign specialists including Mr Lords and Mr Bangbarg of Sweden and Mr Mee Gai of Thailand are assisting the farmers, Lokman said.

When contacted over phone, BRAC agriculture expert Rafiqul Islam at its head office in Dhaka said Fulpur flowers are being exported to Britain, Italy and Thailand. The flowers will be exported to Middle East soon, he said.

Rakibul Bari Khan, Social Forestry Specialist (SFS) at BRAC head office in Dhaka, said they have decided to expand the project because of rising demand abroad.

Cut flowers are an internationally traded, high value commodity. World-wide, retail trade is worth over US$25 billion per annum. The largest markets are Germany, Japan and the USA. The retail value of each of these markets is US$3-5 billion per annum. Other important markets are the individual countries of Western Europe, which have the highest per capita consumption of cut flowers in the world.

Twenty to thirty types of cut flowers account for the vast majority of international sales. The most popular are listed in Table 2. Within each of these flower types there are many varieties, and each year new ones are released. In addition to agronomic characters, novelty is an extremely important factor in the successful marketing of new varieties as the cut flower industry is essentially a fashion industry.

Table 2. The top selling cut flowers in the Dutch auctions, 1995.

Cut flower production in Israel, Colombia, Kenya and other South American or African countries is virtually entirely for export. These countries have an ideal climate for growing and low labour costs which offset the added cost of air freight. Table 3 lists the top ten exporting countries of cut flowers in the world. The general pattern of export is from developing countries to the richer markets of North America and Europe.

From the information in Tables 3 it is clear that the Dutch flower industry still plays a central role in global trade. Many of the major breeding companies are Dutch and Holland continues to lead the world in technological developments associated with growing. More significantly, the Dutch still control 65% of global wholesale trade in cut flowers. This is not likely to change, as the infrastructure of the auction system is excellent and all the major retail markets of Northern Europe are within easy road access. Holland also has a superb air hub at Schipol, with cool stores and point of exit quarantine inspection for flowers destined for Japan.

Table 3. The major cut flower exporting countries.

Bangladesh has a favorable climatic condition and is capable of producing a wide array of cut-flowers and foliage of international standard. Improved method of transportation is also helping this perishable merchandise reach major market destinations within the shortest possible time in as fresh a condition as it is at the time of harvesting.

In view of the marketing prospect, a vast agricultural land could be turned into a flower growing area and the farmers can easily be in a position to make available any quantum of flowers for export, according to market requirements. This is encouraging both the exporters and the importers to strengthen their contacts and stimulate commercial operations of flowers.

In light of the favorable conditions and rise of global demand, floriculture could be a major source of foreign exchange. The return from a land under floriculture is remarkable to the land under traditional cultivation. In this aspect this exceptional initiative could be act as a new dimension for achieving Millennium Development Goals in poverty alleviation.

As a young nation, Bangladesh is striving hard for the future and the Government policy is one of inducement and facilitation for promotion of investment and export. In response to this policy, entrepreneurs have already started investing in commercial farming of flowers and exporters are getting increasingly involved in channeling the product to all potential market destinations.