Bangladesh's export volume of flowers and floral products shows a downtrend in the current financial year compared with that of the previous year due to inferior quality and lack of policy support.

The country earned over 166.1 million taka (about 2.56 million US dollars) in fiscal 2004-05 (July 2004-June 2005), but it is likely to drop by at least 30 percent in the current fiscal, local daily New Age reported on Saturday.

"The export growth is declining as the quality of flowers and floral products is not up to the mark now," Babul Proshad Dasrath, President of Dhaka Flowers' Businessman Association, was quoted by the daily as saying.

He also attributed lack of policy support from the government to the declining trend of the export growth of flowers and floral products.

According to the daily, the growers of India, Kenya, the Netherlands, and Thailand are following the scientific methods in preserving the flowers which have durability of minimum 15 days. But the durability of the country flowers is no more than five days.

The growers need training on preservation, germination, disease control, cultivation, and longevity of flowers in order to boost up the export growth, the daily said.

Non-allocation of permanent place for the wholesalers, and high freight charge are also the drawbacks of the flower export, said Babul, adding that the different flower exporting countries including India usually offer relaxation up to 50 percent in freight charge while Bangladesh never provides such facilities.

Bangladesh exports flowers and floral products to Pakistan, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, India, the United States, South Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Germany, Britain, Denmark and France.

Tuberose, rose, orchid and marigold are among the major flowers that make up Bangladesh's floral basket for exports.

Source: Xinhua