How Bengaluru fell in love with the rose

Barkha Kumari and B K Janardhan go behind the scenes to see how roses are grown, packaged and auctioned

Credit: DH Photo

Credit: DH Photo

Credit: DH Photo

Credit: DH Photo

When it comes to cut roses, Bengaluru is the biggest exporter in India. Pune is a close competitor. But Bengaluru roses are of better quality, says M Vishwanath, joint director, horticulture, Bangalore division.

The prescription for healthy roses: temperature between 28°C and 35°C, red sandy soil, good quality water, and high elevation. “Bengaluru matches these requirements better than Pune,” he says.

How did Bengaluru become a hub of cut roses? An industry expert says about 350 farmers in Karnataka cultivate roses in controlled conditions on 1,000 acres. One cluster is in Doddaballapura, Anekal, Tumakuru and villages 150 km of Bengaluru. Belagavi is another and it supplies its produce to the Pune market, which is closer.

Tejaswini Prakash, principal scientist (plant breeding), Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, takes us back to the early 1990s, when the union government decided to boost floriculture exports, and the universally loved, export-oriented ‘Dutch rose’ varieties became the crop of choice. Bengaluru and Pune were chosen because of cooler climes.

Private companies from European countries such as Netherlands, France and Germany flocked to India to pick up the produce. “For them, Christmas-New Year-Valentine’s is the peak period for rose buying but it also gets cold and cost-intensive for them to do farming. So they thought ‘We will supply rose breeds and technology to India and buy flowers from them’,” she says.

Also read: A rosy Valentine's Day (and year) for the queen of flowers

Since agriculture is free of income tax and exports looked like a good idea, people from non-farming backgrounds started investing in cold storage and poly houses within a radius of 100-150 km from Bengaluru. But polyhouse technology, perfected for the bitingly cold European climate, was counterproductive in India. “It was supposed to keep diseases away but it gave rise to powdery mildew,” she adds. Three or four years later, Israel brought a tech compatible with Bengaluru’s climate.

Industry consolidated in the next decade. The culture of bouquets for marriages and Valentine’s took off. Small farmers and nurseries in Hosur joined in the production of ‘Dutch roses’.

Bengalureans like Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi expanded operations in Africa. He reportedly became the world’s single largest producer of cut roses.

International Flower Auction Bengaluru (IFAB), a public-private venture, was facilitating trade. It functions on the lines of the largest flower auction centre in Aalsmeer, Netherlands. Today, 25%-30% of cut roses of Karnataka are traded at IFAB. Other farmers do it independently.

“Rose farming is a business with high investment, high risk and high returns. To produce good quality, daily monitoring is key. You can’t be an absentee farmer,” Vishwanath sums it up.

AT THE FARM

We are standing amid 35,000 rose plants — disappointed. There is no sweet scent to blow us away, no red blooms to wow our camera.

All plants have a whitish top. Each bud wears a flexible plastic net, a cap, to prevent it from opening prematurely. On closer look, we see the foliage and get a glimpse of the velvety petals within. We smell the buds deep and long but in vain.

“Even I like the fragrant ‘paneer’ roses but what to do? All cut roses sold in the market, for marriages or during Valentine’s, Christmas and New Year, are ‘Dutch roses’. Most have no scent. Some, very faint,” Manjunath Babu explains, as he shows us one of the 11 greenhouses on his 28-acre farm in Honnavara village, an hour’s drive from Bengaluru. He plucks away small or stunted buds, and removes weeds as we walk and talk.

Dutch roses are prized for their bulbous buds, thick stems, and longevity. They are hybrid varieties bred for exports, different than stemless ‘open roses’ that go in garlands and on hair. Irrespective of the place of origin, the name ‘Dutch rose’ has stuck with cut roses.

Dhruva Floritech, Manjunath’s family business, grows 12 types of Dutch roses but on our visit ahead of Valentine’s, one name ruled — Taj Mahal. It is a red rose, unarguably named after the symbol of love, the Taj Mahal of Agra, and accounts for 40% of the roses grown here from February 5 to February 13.

“For special occasions like Valentine’s Day and the marriage season in February, we prepare plants 50 days in advance. With planning, we can harvest 40,000 roses per day,” he explains.

It is late afternoon and the harvest is done. The flowers are in cold storage, in water buckets, for a day or two to curtail blooming. Packing of the last batch is underway in a factory shed.

About 14 workers have their eyes fixed on a scale of 35-70 cm marked on a table in front of them. It is used to measure the stem-to-bud length because “foreign countries want roses of minimum 50 cm, Delhi and Hyderabad like 40 cm-50 cm, Bengaluru goes for 30 cm,” says Manjunath.

The workers were working standing, silently — their target is to pack at least 900 roses, or five buckets, every hour, and 40,000 daily. None pauses to admire the roses. Average buds, with brown and torn petals and soft stems, never make it forward in the chain.

Packing supervisor Chandrashekar steps in to explain the workflow. First, leaves and thorns are removed from the lower part of the stem with a machine. And then, all work is manual.

Stems are sorted, on the basis of colour and length. Later, 20 stems are stacked in five layers and wrapped tightly in corrugated paper, sparing a few inches from the top to avoid damage while shipping. They are secured with long rubber bands that hurt workers badly when they snap. The stems are cut to the desired length — we try this and it is difficult to cut a stem at one go. Next, they are stored in crates in cold storage and sent for auction later.

“The packing must be done in 30 minutes or the roses may begin to droop,” says Chandrashekar.

Around 5 pm, workers start chatting and some proceed to make dinner. They live on the farm.

One is sweeping the discarded leaves and stems — 100 kilos of the waste is sent to the composting pit daily. About 8,000 “pinches” or rejected roses pile up inside the cold storage. These are sold locally for 60 paise to Re 1. “Women in Tamil Nadu buy the pinches a lot,” says Manjunath. On the other hand, cut roses go out for Rs 20-Rs 35 apiece in shops.

As they are winding up, we ask about their Valentine’s Day plans. Rinki Devi, a worker from Bihar, says coyly, “I will give Taj Mahal to my husband and he will give me Taj Mahal. That’s it. On other days, I like to wear a rose in my hair. We have so many choices.” Other women giggle.

Standing at the far end, Manjunath says jokingly, “I am running a rose factory, and I have to give a rose to my wife. Taj Mahal. Nothing else will do.”

He packs us cut roses and pinches in all colours. They have no fragrance but they are pretty and stay in a vase for 10 days.

Domestic market

About 80% of Bengaluru cut roses go outside the state, a majority to Delhi, to the wholesale flower market on the outskirts in Gazipur. Others are sold to Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. About 10% goes towards exports and the rest is used in Karnataka.

Delhi likes red roses while Kerala and Tamil Nadu like white and baby pink. Hyderabad likes slightly open buds. Kolkata likes closed buds.

Red roses are popular during Valentine’s week, yellow on Teacher’s Day, white during Christmas. But marriage decoration is the year-round market.

AUCTION TIME

It was 8.30 am, February 8 when we visited IFAB, a centre in Hebbal to sell, auction and buy high-quality cut flowers. About 99% of the trade happens in roses. We had expected to see people in formals holding paddles to bid and the auctioneer banging the hammer amid cheers and sighs.

The auction hall was quiet and ordinary, like an examination hall. It had benches spread out on eight rows, occupied by a bidder or two. They were all men. Their eyes were fixed on a round electronic ‘auction clock’. The prices on the clock changed at dizzying speed but they keyed in numbers on a tablet nimbly. Some used their phones as calculators, some were on calls negotiating prices and quantities with flower markets, wholesale dealers, shops and hotels.

They were buyers, about 20 of them. They had come to win the finest lots of cut roses and dispatch them to major Indian cities and to countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Bangladesh and UAE the same day. They are usually busy with auctions till 8 pm during peak season.

It became clear to us that no buyer would indulge in a conversation on their strategies, job pressures, or market trends. For the same reason, an officer from IFAB asked us to watch them from a distance.

Cut roses in bunches of 20 start arriving at 5 am or even earlier in trucks. They are offloaded in the ‘receiving area’. The farm initials are marked on buckets and crates, so the produce doesn’t mix up. These are transferred to cold storage (4°C) for a day before they are auctioned. The facility can hold five lakh stems.

“Buyers come by 8-8.30 am and collect a tablet assigned to them for bidding,” the officer said as we walked towards the distribution area where most of the pre- and post-auction buzz unfolds. The consignments are exhibited here for buyers to inspect the quality. It has an auction clock too, at which even the IFAB staffers steal a glance now and then.

“It is a Dutch Auction Clock, where prices start from the highest and drop by 5 paise every second until a bidder accepts the going price. It is the best auction system for perishable goods,” he explained. The details of the rose up for auction (variety, grower’s name, stem length, quantity) appear on the left and the incoming rose on the right.

He went back to his office while we hovered outside a room with glass walls where the auctioneer sits alone, barely looking up from the monitor. The first of the total three rounds of auction got over and he stepped out for a break.

“I study the market trends, demand, and quality of roses to set the price. There is a bit of pressure both from growers and buyers to offer the best price. I also have to give buyers a fair chance. So when a rose is high in demand, I slow down the auction timer,” he explained and left in a rush.

The ‘break’ wasn’t a break. He dashed off to the distribution area to inspect the roses again. Successful bidders got their ‘boys’ packing the consignment at breakneck speed. The snapping sound of the industrial tape filled the room. One boy sat on top of a cardboard box to close it!

Buyer S Manjunath felt the bidding price per bunch for the orange Nobles, and Taj Mahal was high on that day. But he had little choice. It is “the season” and he needs to send 25-30 boxes to Delhi on the 2 pm, 4 pm, 6 pm and 8 pm flights daily.

Edwin Samuel, on the other hand, ended up buying more than he had planned to export to Saudi Arabia. “I came for 180 bunches of red roses of 50 cm and 60 cm. Since there was extra space on the flight, I bought 380 bunches of Taj Mahal, and 70 of Jumilia (white rose with pink edges). Because of Covid, flights are fewer and they need to be booked three to five days in advance,” he said, in explanation.

Edwin’s family owns a rose farm in Anekal. But he comes to IFAB to buy extra stocks when the demand is high and he doesn’t have enough roses. “I will come every day till February 13,” he told us.

Tussle over Taj Mahal

This quintessential red rose is embroiled in a court case over royalty. It is said this variety was bred privately in a foreign country but continues to be multiplied and grown in India illegally. According to reports, Taj Mahal is bred by Dutch company Morheim Roses exclusively for Tamil Nadu-based Tanflora.

T M Aravind, president of South India Floriculture Association, denies the variety is a rip-off. “People confuse it with another variety called Top Secret,” he says.

Royalty comes into the picture when roses have to be exported, experts say.