Stopping to smell the roses

BENGALURU: Nothing says Valentine’s Day than good old roses. The International Flower Auction Bangalore (IFAB) has been preparing for this day for a week now with quality roses. City Express got a sneak-peek at how the entire process works. Roses coming in from growers within a 100-km radius of the city and IFAB receives at least two lakh flowers every day, of 45 different varieties that too.

“We have been auctioning since February 6-7 and buyers have been purchasing greater quantities since the past two days. Yesterday alone, we sold 2.25 lakh Taj Mahal roses, compared to the two lakh sold on regular days,” says B B Devaiah, general manager, IFAB. According to Devaiah, the ‘nobbles’ variety (pink rose) has become quite popular with several buyers. “This could be because pink represents womanhood and the price of this variety has increased from Rs 19 to Rs 23.50 this year. But the quantity of this rose is limited,” he adds The Taj Mahal, however, continues to be the most sought after rose on V-day.

While on usual days, the auction goes from 8.30am to 5pm, on Tuesday, the auction went on till 11pm due to seasonal demand. As many as 400 buyers and 165 buyers from across the country took part. So how does the system work? At the receiving area. Growers bring their roses, which will be auctioned for the following day.

Each bunch consists of 20 flowers. The bunches are then taken to a cold storage room that is maintained at 5 degrees for a day. Before the auction, the roses are brought out to the display room for buyers to check the quantity and quality of the roses. “This time the demand is high. So, I ordered 3,000 bunches in the last three days,” says Devendra Saine, a buyer who was present at IFAB.