Orchid farmers in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram gear up for lucrative business as Valentine’s Day approaches, wedding season peaks

Thiruvananthapuram's orchid farms anticipate a busy season with Valentine's Day approaching, catering to urbanites and e-commerce floral trends.

Scores of orchid and ornamental foliage farms spread across Thiruvananthapuram district’s rural suburbs in Kerala are gearing up for robust business as Valentine’s Day approaches and the wedding season peaks.

On a mildly misty morning early this week, Madhu Shankar, who owns an orchid farm in Navaikulam on the city’s outskirts, carefully inspected his terrestrial orchids and appeared optimistic about the impending peak business season.

Mr. Shankar told The Hindu that he hoped the consumerist frenzy over Valentine’s Day would fetch good profits for the capital district’s orchid farmers.

He noted that red roses, cultivated mainly in relatively temperate Karnataka, symbolised the day. The arguably obscure Victorian-era tradition has almost become a highly commercialised trend among urbanites, chiefly youth. 

“Orchids have not edged red roses out. But it is increasingly becoming a part of Valentine’s Day floral arrangements delivered on orders chiefly forwarded by e-commerce companies”, he said.

In 2000, Mr Shankar left his family’s provisions business. He hazarded a financial risk by converting an expansive fallow land into a sizeable farm, battling snails, slugs, pests, investment, labour problems and irrigation issues.

Orchid farms in the Thiruvananthapuram district are concentrated mainly on the suburbs of Neyyattinkara, Kallambalam, Navaikulam, Puthenthope and Nedumangadu.