MADURAI: The Madurai flower market, which has been functioning from a temporary premises for the past two months, will be shifted back to its own premises from October 1, after the traders made a representation to the Madurai district administration, to shift the market.
Members of three associations, Madurai Flower merchants and commission agents association, Meenakshi Sundareswarar flower traders association and Madurai Wholesale Flower traders welfare association, met district collector Dr S Aneesh Sekhar and made the representation on Tuesday.
President of Madurai Flower merchants and commission agents association, A V Prabhakaran, said that the shifting of the market to a smaller place had affected everyone badly. About 20,000 farmers bring their produce to the market everyday but all of them have been affected as the prices fell due to the shifting of the market, and tonnes of flowers went waste.
The market was shifted as a Covid precautionary measure after crowds thronged the place on the day of Adiperukku in July this year. Flowers like jasmine, pitchi, sambangi, lotus, arali, vadamalli, cockscomb, kenthi and a variety of leaves including tulsi, vilvam and marikolundu are sold here.
This year due to good rains, the crop has been good, said Prabhakaran and added that not less than three tonnes of each flower arrived in the market during these two months, but half of it had to be thrown away, due to low sales. T Shanmugam, a farmer said that they had a good jasmine harvest this year, but the market was shifted during the peak season.
The collector assured to look into it.
