Price of flowers shoots through the roof in city

Visakhapatnam: With the ‘Sravana Masaam’— an auspicious month in the Telugu calendar underway, the city has seen a hike in the sale of flowers. This has led to the price of flowers going through the roof.
Ahead of ‘Modati Sravana Sukravaram’ (first Friday of Sravana Masaam), women were seen flocking to flower markets in all 13 rythu bazaars in the city.
Customers were seen haggling over prices of chrysanthemums, roses, lilies, marigolds and jasmines. The demand for these flowers has shot through the roof.
Taking stock of the increased demand and explaining the feature, estate officer of Narasimha Nagar Rythu Bazaar in the city said that the price of chrysanthemums has shot up to Rs 600 per kilo from Rs 300 a kilo in one day. The price of marigold has gone up to Rs 120 a kilo. The price of other flowers like roses has also increased by 40% to 50%, he maintained.
According to Prasad, the rythu bazaars in the city will have an average sale of six quintals per day this month.
The flowers, for this season, are procured from Kolkata, Rajahmundry and Guntur and then sold from the wholesale market at Anandapuram, from where it comes to the retail market in rythu bazaars.
“The demand for flowers will be high on all three Fridays of the month,” Prasad told TOI.
K Simhacham, a vendor at MVP Colony, said that the price of flowers is expected to go up higher on the second Friday of the month as people hold the ‘Varalakshmi Vratham’ ritual on that day.