Saying it with roses this year might burn a hole in your pocket

Kolkata: With a sharp surge in the prices of red roses ahead of Valentine week, expressing your feelings to your loved ones may leave a hole in your pocket.

"Usually, a single rose costs you something between Rs 5 and Rs 10. But during the Valentine week, the same rose would be priced around Rs 40. So, a bouquet of roses, which would cost Rs 200, will be priced around Rs 500, from February 7," said Raghunath Das, who owns a flower shop in New Market.

The surge in price is due to the increased demand of roses and price hike of the flower worldwide. To meet the demand of the customers, local variety of roses is sourced from two districts of East Midnapore and North 24-Parganas where it is grown in abundance.

But the Dutch rose, which is considered to be of much superior quality than their local counterpart, is sourced from the farms in Bangalore, Ooty and Visakhapatnam. These flowers have a longer stem and the flower is larger than their local counterpart and so these flowers are priced at a much higher cost.

The Agri Horticultural Society of India said with the onset of winter the production of roses used to go dormant. But over the years, the installation of high-tech equipment in flower farms has become important during the off-season to meet the growing demand of customers.

Shiraz Khan, another florist in New Market, said last year at the end of Valentine week he had earned around Rs 30,000. This year, he expects the amount to go up to Rs 50,000 as the demand for roses has been increasing by 10-15 percent annually during this period.

He further said: "On the night of February 6, he is expecting a delivery of 10,000 red roses and almost 1,00,000 roses are brought to the market every year before the onset of Valentine week."

The flowers are also exported to cities, including Delhi and Bombay, and some are even exported to Nepal.