Three trading days in all of February, and 7,000 flowers left unsold

This grower at Panisara in Jhikargachha, Jashore, has gerbera under shade on two bighas. He had built up stock for the Spring Festival and Valentine's Day, the highest-priced days of the flower year. The national election and referendum kept the Godkhali flower market shut for most of February, with trading on only three days, the seventh to the ninth. He could not sell seven thousand flowers, a loss of roughly one lakh taka from those blooms alone. Other growers fared the same way: one missed the Valentine's premium on his roses, and another fed his marigolds to cattle because there was no market at all. The Godkhali area has 800 hectares under commercial flowers and about 6,000 families in the trade, with annual output worth 350-400 crore taka, and the growers' association said a few closed days were enough for the season's sales not to happen.