floriculture has become one of the important commercial activities in Indian agriculture. Indian floriculture industry comprises the florist trade, nursery plants, bulb and seed production, apart from production of micropropagation material, and extraction of essential oils from flowers. The industry has been growing at a CAGR of 25 percent over the past decade, with production area growing at a CAGR of 6.89 percent since 2000-01.A number of Export Oriented Units (EOUs) have been set up in the country; most of them are largely dependent on foreign collaborations for technological support. In the recent years, a number of large Corporate Houses such as ESSAR group, TATA group, Birla, Nagarjuna and Pariwala have also invested in the flower sector. Protected cultivation is not a common practice in India, the greenhouse designs and structures for the modern floriculture units are mostly imported from countries like Holland, Israel, France, and the USA. In India, there are three types of greenhouse production technologies, viz., low-tech units, mid-tech units and hi-tech units, with the investment costs varying significantly among the three groups. Marketing of cut flowers in India is much unorganised at present. Packaging and transportation of flowers is also very unscientific. In the metros, however, in the recent years, some modern florist show rooms have come up, where flowers are kept in controlled temperature conditions, with considerable attention to value added services. To facilitate flower trade, two auction centres have also been established one at Bangalore and the other at Mumbai.
Commercial floriculture in India is going through a paradigm shift, where traditional flower cultivation is giving way to modern hi-tech flower cultivation, which is evident from India's rising production and exports. Exports of floricultural products have been growing at a CAGR of 15 percent over the past decade. However, the growth of the industry has been significantly affected by the recent global recession largely due to decline in demand in all major markets. India's exports of floricultural products in the year 2007-08 decreased by 41 percent to US$ 84.5 million (Rs. 340 crores), from US$ 144 million (Rs. 653 crores) in 2006-07, which further decreased by 5.18 percent in the year 2008-09 to US$ 80.19 million. However, in 2008-09, in rupee terms, export of floriculture from India increased marginally. In the recent years, dried flowers and foliage have been forming a large part of floricultural product exports from India. During 2008-09, dried flowers constituted over 60 percent of cut flowers exports, and dried foliage constituted over 95 per cent of total foliage exports from India. Fresh cut flowers are mainly exported from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Dried flowers are exported mainly from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, with the later accounting for around 70 per cent of the dried flower exports from the country. Europe continues to be the largest destination for Indian floriculture exports. However, in the recent years Indian exports of floriculture products have also been to the Japanese and Australian markets.
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