Coimbator

Flower prices soar in Coimbatore ahead of festivals

Market to remain open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a couple of days

Flower prices in Coimbatore soared on Thursday and the temporary flower market at Devanga Higher Secondary School saw huge crowd ahead of Varalakshmi Vratham on Friday and Aadi 18 on Sunday.

U.V.S. Selvakumar, president of the Coimbatore District Flower Merchants’ Association, said it was decided to keep the market open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., instead of closing at 4 pm, for a couple of days because of the festivals. “The public cannot go to temples. So they want to buy flowers to pray at home. The crowd was high on Thursday. We kept asking the public to maintain physical distance. Even to buy 100 gm to 250 gm flowers, two people from a family come to the market,” he said.

The prices of flowers are expected to remain so for the next two days.

“The prices are high in all the markets in the State. Flower arrivals already dropped steeply on Thursday. Varalakshmi Vratham is celebrated widely in Karnataka. Hence, flower demand was high in places such as Mysore. The Coimbatore market gets about 10 tonnes of flowers a day. On Thursday two to three tonnes were lesser,” he added.

Prices of jasmine was ₹800 to ₹1,000 a kg as against ₹200 or so a kg one week ago. Similarly, lotus sold at ₹40 to ₹50 a flower as against ₹5 to ₹10 each. Thazhampoo was sold at ₹150 to ₹200 each as against ₹50 earlier.

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