SUKANTA HALDER

On a chilly Saturday morning two men sit at a flower shop in the capital’s Shahbagh with different flowers, thread, wrapping paper, adhesive tape and other materials.

One of the men, Jahidul Islam, a private sector employee, was giving directions to the other, a florist, for a customised flower basket for a New Year’s celebration programme at his office.

“Without flowers, we could not even imagine an event or celebration. I came early…because I thought it would be very busy here,” said Islam.

Another customer, November Tuesday, was looking for flowers that match the colour of a cake. A software engineer by profession, she said it was meant for her parents for their wedding anniversary on December 31.

With increasing orders coming in centring New Year’s celebrations and other events, the flower shops are becoming increasingly busy catering to customers amid their peak season for sales.

The retailers are hoping that they would be able to bounce back to profitability after two years of gloomy sales following the emergence of the pandemic.

In Bangladesh, demand for flowers starts to peak from November when the wedding season begins, they said.

The demand continues to stay high for more than four months for some national and global events.

These include Victory Day on December 16, Christmas Day on December 25, New Year’s celebrations on December 31, Pohela Falgun, the first day of spring in the Bangla month of Falgun, Valentine’s Day on February 14, International Mother Language Day on February 21 and Independence Day on March 26.

Many people and large corporate companies organise various events around December 31, said Mohammad Jahangir Hossain, manager of Fultala Flower Shop in Shahbagh.

That is why the demand and sale of flowers increase on this day with customer numbers starting to grow since morning, he said.