Floriculture in Nepal: Flower Industry, Tihar Marigold Trade & Prices

Floriculture - the commercial cultivation and trade of flowers and ornamental plants - has existed in organised form in Nepal for a little over three decades. The sector's turning point came on 15 November 1992 (2049 BS), when the Floriculture Association Nepal (FAN) was founded in Kathmandu by around ten pioneering nursery owners. FAN, a non-profit national business membership organisation headquartered in Jwagal, Lalitpur, has since grown to more than 750 member enterprises spanning growers, wholesalers, nurseries and retail florists - a membership expansion of roughly seventy-fold that mirrors the industry's own growth.

The financial scale of the flower business in Nepal has risen steadily despite periodic shocks. FAN data show annual transactions of about Rs 1.63 billion in fiscal year 2077/78 BS (2020/21), when COVID-19 lockdowns cancelled weddings and festivals, recovering by roughly 30 percent to around Rs 2.32 billion in FY 2078/79 (2021/22). By the mid-2020s the association was citing annual business of roughly Rs 2.5 billion and above, with demand for garlands alone growing an estimated 15-20 percent per year.

Geographically, commercial flower farming has spread from a handful of Kathmandu Valley nurseries to around 50-52 districts, covering roughly 200-260 hectares according to recent FAN estimates (figures vary by year and counting method). The sector supports more than 44,000 people directly, alongside over 750 formally registered nurseries and floriculture businesses. The Kathmandu Valley remains the undisputed hub for production, wholesale trade and retail alike.

The most rigorous baseline dataset on the industry comes from the first national commercial floriculture survey, conducted in 2014/15 (2071/72 BS) by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS, now the National Statistics Office) in collaboration with FAN - the first time Nepal's apex statistical body counted the flower economy. The survey identified commercial flower farming at 561 locations across 36 districts, of which 381 locations were concentrated in and around the Kathmandu Valley.

The survey valued Nepal's annual commercial flower output at Rs 671.44 million. Seasonal flowers such as marigold and dahlia contributed the largest share at Rs 221.74 million (about 33 percent), followed by perennial flowers such as rose, chrysanthemum, carnation and azalea at Rs 167.09 million, and decorative plants like dhupi and hedge shrubs at Rs 120.37 million. On employment, the survey counted about 2,300 permanent jobs plus some 72,400 people engaged on a daily-wage basis, underlining how seasonal and labour-intensive the sector is.

District-level results confirmed the Valley's dominance: Kathmandu alone produced 50.4 percent of national output, followed by Lalitpur (7.1 percent), Morang (4.1 percent), Kaski (3.9 percent) and Bhaktapur (3.6 percent). The survey also exposed structural weaknesses - about 48 percent of nurseries operated without proper licensing, and ownership skewed heavily male (71 percent versus 29 percent female proprietors).

Nepali floriculture is conventionally divided into several product segments, each with distinct markets and seasonality. Cut flowers - roses, gladioli, carnations, gerberas and chrysanthemums sold by the stem - serve the year-round urban market of weddings, hotels, parties and worship. In the Kathmandu Valley, daily demand for roses and for gladiolus spikes has each been estimated at roughly 8,000-10,000 stems in peak periods, and around 200,000 rose stems were reported sold in the Valley during Valentine's week in 2024.

Loose flowers - above all sayapatri (marigold) and makhamali (globe amaranth) strung into garlands - are the highest-volume segment and are overwhelmingly festival-driven, peaking at Tihar and through the November-February wedding season. Seasonal bedding plants, potted plants (including the godawari or chrysanthemum pots displayed during Tihar), landscaping services, and planting materials such as seeds, bulbs and rhizomes round out the industry. Older academic studies from the mid-2000s found Nepal could then meet only about 40 percent of its cut-flower demand domestically; FAN now states that domestic production covers around 90 percent of total flower demand in normal years - a striking import-substitution success.

No event moves more flowers in Nepal than Tihar (Kartik, October-November), when households garland crows, dogs, cows and - on Bhai Tika - brothers, and drape doorways and shops for Laxmi Puja. The sayapatri (marigold) garland is the festival's workhorse; the velvety purple makhamali garland, which does not wilt for months, is reserved for Bhai Tika as a symbol of the sister's wish for her brother's long life; godawari (chrysanthemum) garlands and pots are the premium decoration.

FAN's festival estimates trace a rapidly growing market. For Tihar 2079 (2022) the association projected about 2.35 million garlands worth roughly Rs 235 million - around 2 million marigold, 300,000 makhamali and 50,000 godawari garlands. By Tihar 2081 (2024) the estimate had grown to about 4.5 million garlands worth Rs 371 million, including 4 million marigold garlands (up 14 percent year on year), some 475,000 makhamali garlands and tens of thousands of godawari and mixed garlands. For Tihar 2082 (2025), FAN projected total flower business of around Rs 400 million, with nearly 4 million marigold garlands and about 550,000 makhamali garlands sold in roughly a week.

Weddings provide the industry's second pillar. The wedding seasons on either side of winter absorb marigold garlands, rose and gladiolus stems, and decorative arrangements, which is why FAN reports total annual garland and flower trade far above the Tihar figure alone. This dual festival-plus-wedding demand is what allows marigold farming in Nepal to be viable across all seven provinces, with concentrations in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur and significant pockets in Chitwan, Kavre, Morang, Ilam and Kailali.

Flower prices at Tihar swing sharply with weather, festival timing and supply, so figures should be read as indicative ranges rather than fixed rates. In Tihar 2082 (October 2025), FAN projected wholesale marigold garlands at about Rs 80-85 per metre and makhamali garlands at Rs 40-45, but retail prices ran higher once middlemen and last-minute demand kicked in: a one-metre sayapatri garland of roughly 40 flowers retailed at about Rs 100-140 in Kathmandu, single marigold blooms touched Rs 40-45, and makhamali garlands reached Rs 100 apiece in retail markets.

Farm-gate dynamics were dramatic that season: growers in Gundu (Bhaktapur) saw open-field sayapatri jump from about Rs 300 to Rs 700-800 per kilogram in the final week before the festival, while tunnel-grown marigold fetched up to Rs 1,300 per kilogram, and retail loose marigold crossed Rs 1,000 per kilogram. In years of surplus the same garland can sell far cheaper - FAN quoted marigold garlands at just Rs 55-60 in 2022 - while supply shocks push prices the other way. Godawari is the premium product: garland prices have ranged from several hundred rupees up to around Rs 3,000 for large decorative pieces, and potted godawari plants command similar festival premiums.

The wide farm-to-retail spread is a recurring grievance. Reporting from Bhaktapur in 2025 noted that competition among middlemen, not farmer margins, drove much of the retail spike, with individual growing families earning between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000 from garland sales in the season.

For most of the 2000s Nepal's flower shops depended on Indian supply, but sustained investment in domestic production has reversed the picture: FAN estimates that Nepali growers now meet about 90 percent of national flower demand in a normal year, with imports (about Rs 380 million in FY 2021/22, against exports of only around Rs 10 million) concentrated in hybrid seeds, planting materials and off-season or specialty blooms that Nepal cannot yet produce. Marigold self-sufficiency at Tihar has been achieved in good years, though the balance remains weather-fragile - after heavy late-September rains and floods damaged standing marigold crops in 2024, domestic farms could supply only around 62 percent of festival demand and traders again imported garlands from India.

The most celebrated counter-flow is the makhamali export trade. Because globe amaranth garlands keep for months, the Nepali diaspora orders them for Bhai Tika celebrations abroad: exporters shipped roughly 150,000 garlands for Tihar 2023 and about 200,000 for Tihar 2024 and again in 2025, mainly to the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Europe and the Gulf. Gundu village in Suryabinayak Municipality-7, Bhaktapur - often called Nepal's makhamali village - anchors this trade, cultivating around 700 ropani of makhamali and 300 ropani of sayapatri and supplying flowers and garlands worth an estimated Rs 50 million a year.

The governing policy framework is the Floriculture Promotion Policy 2069 (approved in 2012), formulated under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD). The policy promised support for infrastructure, grower training, quality control, post-harvest handling and early-year tax relief for floriculture earnings. Public-sector research and extension are supported by the Floriculture Development Center at Godawari, Lalitpur (now under Bagamati Province). FAN has been lobbying the federal government to revise the 2069 policy, arguing it predates federalism and the industry's current scale.

The sector's persistent constraints include dependence on imported hybrid seeds and planting materials, weather shocks in an almost entirely open-field marigold crop, a wide farmer-to-retail price gap captured by intermediaries, widespread informality among nurseries, and thin cold-chain and post-harvest infrastructure. Even so, the fundamentals favour growth: garland demand rising 15-20 percent annually, an expanding wedding and events economy, proven import substitution in marigold and cut flowers, and a niche export identity in makhamali. For prospective growers, marigold farming in Nepal offers quick seasonal cycles and assured Tihar demand, while cut flowers and makhamali offer higher-value, longer-horizon opportunities - provided market linkage is secured before planting.