The business of flowers

#Perspective

Flowers have been admired, sought after, and cherished throughout the history of humankind. There are a number of reasons for it, but the reason we usually seek flowers is the simplest of all. We seek flowers because they are beautiful. Native or exotic, we often get mesmerised by their beauty and forget that they come with a story of their own.

Shahbagh Market

If you have ever stepped out of a bus at Shahbagh or Shishupark or ever walked towards the Dhaka University Campus or Shaheed Minar; you have seen the Shahbagh flower market.

The shops are along the road and in a row. Big, small, even temporary ones. With the bright and conspicuous colours of chrysanthemum and marigold and the intricately outlined petals of roses and the bewitching fragrance of tuberose, this place is hard to miss without getting lost in the beauty of it all.

The Shahbagh market has two parts: one is a wholesale market and the other one is retail market. The wholesale market is located on the Shishupark side and the retail shops are everything that remains. The wholesale market starts rather early, at 4AM and it continues till 11AM. The rest of the market however, is open roughly 24 hours a day; so whenever you come here, you can get yourself a stick of tuberose or a bouquet according to your choice. 

Agargaon Market

The other wholesale market in Dhaka is at Agargaon. Originally, the market started at Khamarbari in 2009 where it had a good run for five years. Then it was moved to Agargaon and it's already been seven years since. The market is similar to the one in Shahbagh. This market also starts pretty early; in fact, earlier than the Shahbagh market. Starting to prepare at 2AM, this market kicks off by 3 in the morning and goes on till 10AM. After the wholesale business has been concluded, the retail shops will still remain open.

"There is a business of at least Tk 10 lakhs here every day, going as far as 20 lakhs," said Nur Mohammad, President of Sher E Bangla Ful Chashi O Baboshayi Somobai Samiti. It's a spectacular gathering of native and foreign flowers. Whether you are into orchids or lilies, or Chinese rose and gerbera, you will find them here. The million shades of colours and aroma will send you in frenzy if you step inside the market.

Supply and demand

Where do all these flowers come from? Well, all sorts of places. From nearby places like Savar, Tangail and Narayanganj to far away locations like Jashore (Godkhali), Jhenaidah, Chuadanga; Even Natore, and Bogura — you will find flowers from all across the country in both of these markets. As soon as the flowers are ready to collect, they come straight to Dhaka, fresh from the fields. The native flowers are more popular than the exotic ones. One reason for this is that such flowers are costlier. Most of the exotic flowers come from India and China and even though they are low in demand amongst the mass people, they have their demand amongst a specific group of customers. 

Flower Capital

Godkhali in Jashore is called the flower capital of Bangladesh and rightfully so. While many places are known for their cultivation of different kinds of crops, flowers are cultivated in acres and acres of fields in Godkhali. The wholesale flower market of Godkhali tends to the flower need of more than 50 districts in the country. In addition to that, flowers are also exported abroad. At least 15 different kinds of flowers are grown in the fields here, which include but are not limited to — rose, gerbera, gladiolus, tuberose, and marigold.

Md Ali Hossain, owner of 'Godkhali Krishi Nursery & Pushponir' has been in this business since 2006. "Before me, my father used to do the same business. You could say we are in this business since our birth," he said with a chuckle.

"The shops and fields here supply flowers all across the country. Most shops have a prevalent contract to a shop or market in Dhaka or another city and we supply according to that. We load up the vehicles with flowers by 1 or 2 at noon. They arrive at Dhaka by midnight and then the wholesale market over there kicks off," he said, discussing the usual timetables.

Presently, he maintains about 75 acres of flower garden and like many Godkhali farmers, growing exotic flowers in the near future is an appealing idea to Md Ali Hossain.

"The ground here is amazing; the soil is like gold. Anything we sow, it blooms like magic," he added with pride. "This season, there has been an experimental cultivation of tulip in a field. The seeds were from Netherlands and dare I say the production was fantastic so this looks like a promising prospect."

Story from the other side

In summer, the average flower will last for two days at most. It's easier in winter as flowers can survive for up to five to seven days depending on their variety "If we cannot sell all the flowers within two to three days, then we have no choice but to throw away the remaining ones as trash. There's no other way around it" said Md Dulal, owner of New Aparajita Pushpaloi, a flower shop at the Shahbagh market. Having been in this business since 1996, he's seen quite a lot but the pandemic was quite an unexpected blow. "The business was really good and blooming before the lockdown. Since the pandemic, it's been really difficult and even though everything is reopened now, the demand for flowers is not what it used to be," he added.

Md Rasel from Agargaon flower market, a comparatively young face in the business shared a similar story, saying, "From December to March, our business blooms since it's a seasonal business but this year, not so much. COVID has really smothered it but I think it's the panic of COVID rather than COVID itself that did the most damage."

"The emergence of artificial flowers also dealt a blow to the flower business," stated Nur Mohammad, President of Sher E Bangla Ful Chashi O Baboshayi Somobai Samiti. Even the farmers back at Godkhali had suffered a drop in business because of artificial flowers. "And the farmers barely get any assistance in their cultivation of flowers. It's a blooming business, but there just isn't enough support that we hope for," he added.

A different story

'Pushpo Nir — One Stop Floral Decor & Design' is a high-end flower shop in Gulshan that shares the flower business but their story is a bit different. For a more upscale location, they have a higher demand in exotic flowers compared to native ones.

Flowers are imported mostly from China and Kenya.

"Roses and Lilies are in high demand but roses are the most popular," said Mehedi Hasan, IT Executive of Pushpo Nir.

"Compared to a few years back, the overall demand of flowers has vastly increased. On the special days, we observe a higher demand of flowers but yes, from December to March, the business increases by 70 to 100 percent," he added.

While the average flower business has suffered because of artificial flowers, this high-end shop didn't suffer on those grounds. "We think that natural flowers and artificial flowers have different customers so those who are interested in natural flowers will not go for artificial ones."

Shakespeare said in one of his plays — "That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet." I am no literary critic, but one thing I know for certain is that even he was captivated by the beauty of flowers. The rest of us remain enamoured just so. 

Photo: Adnan Rahman

Model: Niki

Flower Jewellery: Eskay By Samiul Karim

Make-up: Sumon Rahat

Styling: Sonia Yeasmin Isha

Studio: Uturn Production