One million roses on Valentines from TN alone

Chennai, Feb 13: It promises to be a rosy Valentine Day for millions of young lovers across the world with one million stems coming from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu alone for the D-day tomorrow..

The consignment carrying the flowers left this month from Tanflora's farm complex in in Amudagondapally Village at Tamil Nadu-Karnataka Border for Germany.

Tanflora is a 100 per cent EoU and a joint venutre between state-owned TIDCO and M N Ahmed Associates.

Packed in 2,500 boxes, Red Horizons, Passions, Red Palaces and Gentles were airlifted to the German auction centre for Valentine 's Day celebrations from where they will reach homes in Australia, Singapore and West Asia.

''We have crossed the one million mark for the first time this Valentine's Day and the roses from this state certainly seem to have a blossoming future,'' Tanflora Managing Director Najeeb Ahmed told UNI today.

''It is possible due to vast spread of computerised greenhouses, grading-packing halls and chilled storage and transport infrastructure across the garden,'' he pointed out.

''We brought in about 130 varieties of roses and found 35 of them performing well,'' he said.

There was a rose of different hue for every occasion. Valentines Day, Grandparents Day, Girlfriends Day and Mothers Day.

''With improved marketing techniques involving participatiON in global auction centres, Tanflora has not only established itself but is also well poised to become a global leader,'' Mr Ahmed said. More than 150 poor people in the village and surroundings were employed fulltime on decent salary for picking the flowers thrice a day and cool-packing them for shipment, he said.

''Each 60 cm stem could fetch anywhere between Rs 20 and Rs 60 in the global markets for Valentines Day, as against production cost of around Rs 5, including freight,'' TIDCO CMD S Ramasundaram added.

''Each grower with his two hectare land can produce 30 lakh roses a year with an average profit of Rs 1.50 per stem. By 2009, they will be able to produce about 70 million roses for exports.'' Began in 1998 as TIDCO's first foray in large-scale agro activity collaborating with a private partner, Tanflora had a rough ride for almost five years as expensive and unsuited western farming methods and infrastructure were used and financial institutions did not provide credit, TIDCO officials said.

It was only in 2002, the State Bank of India came forward with term loans. With fresh infusion of funds and Israeli technology, the venture saw light at the end of the tunnel.

This cooperative venture which not only has the promoters but also 25 member-farmers holding lands is fast blooming into a project which with a rosy future.

UNI