Hyderabad: International flora expo kicks off at Hitex

Madhapur: The 15th International Flora Expo and Landscape and Gardening Expo 2020 kicked off at Hitex here on Friday. Commercial flower growers, nursery-plant growers, high-tech horticulture farm owners and progressive farmers are all here to participate in most prominent exposition for commercial horticulture. The 3-day expo will end on March 1.

The twin expos with concurrent participation of Agrex India aim to put modern technology directly at the doorsteps of progressive farmers of South India. The theme of the expo is "Go for Fresh, Ban Artificial and Plastic Flowers. It has been seen that a large amount of artificial flowers are being imported from China which is strongly harming the demand and production of fresh flowers by bulk consumers in India," said S Jafar Naqvi, the president of iFlora.

He added, "As per the trade sources almost 40% of cut flower consumption has been down due to plastic and artificial flowers and a campaign has been launched to save farmers in terms of new varieties introduction by major planting material suppliers, greenhouse manufacturers and allied interests. The expo comprises products and services from over 20 nations. High quality planting material for best quality plants, flowers, fruits & vegetables from Holland, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, New Zealand, Israel, Portugal and so many other countries is displayed by leading plant material and greenhouse industry suppliers.

India is a major export power in Roses and Soex Flora is displaying cut roses and rose plants for high quality roses for domestic as well as international market.

While expo is going on for three days, an International Landscape and Gardening Industry Congress is organised on 29th February at the same venue. Daylong conference will have Landscape Architects, Designers and Doyens of the sector deliberating on entire gamut of City Planning & Greening. The congress is organised by Indian Flowers & Ornamental Plants Association (iFlora) in association with Indian Society of Landscape Architects ( ISOLA ) and Media Today Group.

To encourage new generation florists and floral artists, "National Floral Design Championship" has become a major attraction for trade visitors and different agriculture institutes have been invited for live workshops and training programmes.

This event is supported by the Department of Horticulture, Government of Telangana and National Research Development Corporation (NRDC).