Retail Consumer Behaviour of Floriculture Industry in Eastern India: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Floriculture industry is one of the largest industries in India where India has an immense potentiality concerning to expansion of the product range and various commercial activities. These activities consist of flower trading, supplying saplings, greens and ornamental plants, landscaping in real estate market, floral designing and custom made products in weddings and festivities, extracting essential oils, natural dye from flowers and preparing ingredients in pharmaceutical industry. In India, mainly fresh flowers are exported from Karnataka, Maharashtra and dried flowers from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Although Indian floriculture exports have largely captured European, Japanese and Australian markets but International market is highly competitive due to the presence of African countries, and Asian neighbours in this segment. Except the international demand, domestic demand is also very high with growing rate of around 40% per annum. In the present scenario, Indian Export Oriented Units in this sector are mainly dependent on technological support which comes from various foreign countries like France, USA, Holland, etc. The other significant issues are related with the unorganized market structure, unscientific packaging and transportation of flowers, low level of product diversification and differentiation, high import tariff in African countries, non-availability of perishable carriers, insufficient infrastructural support, lack of quality control and certification, deficiencies in cold chain management, etc. Recently, private investments in floriculture industry have been initiated by reputed corporate houses like TATA group, Birla, ESSAR group, etc. Several initiatives for marketing and growth of floriculture sector have been already taken by the Government. However, more dynamic strategies are to be adopted by the Government along with the private organizations and research institutions in order to fulfill domestic as well as international demands of this sector. In our present study, a deliberate attempt will be made to frame a conceptual model on retail consumer behaviour of rural Floriculture Industry in Eastern India. The findings of this paper will depict the retail consumer behaviour which will help us to identify the critical factors in retail floriculture business. This study will also prescribe deliberate strategies for the overall improvement of this sector in the days to come.