By james art 
About 200,000 garlands of mahamali flowers will be brought out for the Tihar festival this year.
According to the Nepal Florist Association, 150,000 mahamali flower garlands were exported last year.
Association president Dilip Bade said there is demand for mahamali flower garlands, especially in the US, Japan, Australia, Korea and some countries in Europe as well as the Persian Gulf.
The demand for such garlands is increasing in other countries with an increasing number of Nepalis.
Floriculture has expanded to 52 districts including Kathmandu Valley, Kaski, Chitwan, Makavanpur, Kavrepalanchowk, Gulmi, Palpa, Dading and Morang. However, the country did not become self-reliant on Sayapatri or the marigold flowers used during the Tihar festival.
About four million marigold garlands have been estimated for this year’s Tihar festival. However, only 2.5 million garlands are produced in the country. The insufficient number of marigold garlands have to be imported from India, the association added.
Chairman Bade mentioned that the demand for marigold flowers is increasing by 15 to 20 percent every year. This year there is a demand for 700,000 more garlands than the previous year. About 3.3 million garlands were claimed in Tihar last year.
The floriculture sector suffered a loss of Rs 150 crore this year due to incessant rains that occurred in the last week of September.
A total of 450 types of flowers are produced commercially in Nepal and more than 44,000 people have benefited from this business, according to the Association. Floriculture is done on 221 hectares of land in Nepal.