Bengal blooms far and wide

Kolkata, Mar 1 (UNI) West Bengal is poised for a festival of flowers along with the festival of colours (Holi) this year, as fragrance from the state is all set to go global-courtesy Horticultural Development Corporation (HDC).

According to HDC, flowers from the state can now reach any corner of the world as West Bengal has become a member of one of the largest auction centres in the world-FloraHolland in the Netherlands.

This will enable the West Bengal State Food Processing (WBSEP) and HDC, whose flower exports were restricted to the Arab countries and the Netherlands, to reach out to Germany, France, the UK, the US, Canada and Japan.

HDC sources said with more than 4,500 buyers at FloraHolland turning to 26 auction clocks spread across various locations, it would be possible for growers in Bengal to have their products, especially tuberoses sent all over the world.

The HDC had already started supplying flowers to the Netherlands via Dutch traders, but now the direct access would enable it to reach a wider market, the sources said.

FloraHolland has five bases in the Netherlands where flowers were supplied by growers from Africa, Israel, South America, Asia and other countries.

From a monthly supply of 10,000 stalks occasionally, the tuberoses export inventory now stood at 3000 stalks a month and the flow would now be regular.

With Rs 5.1 lakh worth of tuberoses being exported to the auction centre in the Netherlands every month, there was a possibility of improving further on this market as the exporter had already put a stamp of approval on the quality of the bloom, the sources maintained.

This flowery revelation and rosy picture of the state came to light amidst threadbare analysis of the Union budget by economists and others hinting at alleged neglect to West Bengal and the thorny tug-of-war by political opponents advocating for agriculture and industry.

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