With prices of red rose surging, it’s going to get even more expensive to express your feelings to your loved ones during Valentine’s Day.

Floriculture Association Nepal (FAN) said that a rose per stick now costs Rs50 to Rs100 compared to Rs40 to Rs80 last year. The surge in price is due to increased demand of stick rose and price hikes of the flower worldwide, said Kumar Kasaju Shrestha, president at FAN.

According to the association, the country imported 160,000 stick roses worth Rs10.5 million for Valentine’s Day this year while the import stood at 150,000 roses worth Rs10.2 million last year. Similarly, 40,000 stick roses were produced domestically for the special occasion.

Only 20 percent of the demand is fulfilled from domestic production while the remaining 80 percent demand is being fulfilled through imports, he said. The roses are being imported from Bangalore and Kolkata in India and Holland, he told.

Likewise, domestic roses are being sourced from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Chitwan, he said.

Due to the winter season, the production of rose falls, Shrestha said. The flower production slows from mid-December to mid-March, he said, adding, flower farms go dormant during this period.

He explained that domestic flower farms were not able to grow more roses as they still follow traditional cultivation methods.

The installation of high tech equipment in flower farms has become important to increase the production during the off season, he said. It costs Rs10 million to install high tech equipment in 1,000 square feet of land.  

The demand for roses has been increasing by 10-15 percent annually during Valentine’s Day, said Shrestha. The main reasons for the spike in demand of stick rose during Valentine’s Day are  increasing urbanisation, exposure and socialisation of international culture of the millennial generation, he added. Similarly, the trend of gifting a rose is catching on with people of all age groups and contributes to the rise in demand for roses.

Usually, roses go on sale from February 7 and continues till February 14, said a flower shop owner based in Jawalakhel. His flower shop sold more than 1,000 sticks of roses during last year’s Valentine’s Day and expects to sell more than 2,000 roses this year.

The demand for roses is high especially in Kathmandu and Pokhara as 60 percent of all stick roses are sold in the Valley, he revealed.

According to the association, 8,000 to 10,000 roses are being sold daily. The country earns around Rs200 million from the sale of roses, informed FAN.

Anil Kumar Jalan, owner at Archies Gallery at Jawlakhel said that he expects to sell more than 20 sticks of rose per day during the week.