Think of a red rose and it reminds you of Valentine’s Day. The age-old tradition – termed as Western by a number of groups- is followed and celebrated on every February 14 to express love gifting a red rose to the beloved one.
Nagpur city also doesn’t lag behind when it comes to celebrate the occasion with red roses in high demand. This year on the eve of Valentine’s Day, the city witnessed a record turnover of over Rs 1 crore of roses at the local Netaji Market – the wholesale flower market of the city.
Talking to TLN, Narendra Mire, proprietor Chandu Florist said over 15,000 bundles of roses with each bundle consisting of 20 flowers were sold in the market on Wednesday with each flower costing over Rs 20 in the wholesale market. The same would be sold in the retail market in the range of Rs 30-50, Mire said.
Mire who runs his shop for over 25 years said majority of the roses come to Nagpur from Talegaon Dabhade in Pune district followed by Nashik, Jalgaon and Bhusawal. The local production contributes only 1 % of the total turnover, he said.
On a normal day, the rose turnover is in the range of 40 % and the same jumps to 75% on Valentine’s Day. However, the demand for other flowers like orchid, jarbera, gladela Lilly is also quite high during the season.
Other traders said this year the market was good. Rohit, another local trader said the rates of roses were good and so was the demand, fetching good revenue to the traders.
