The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A fragnant fillip to women entrepreneurs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 29, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

A fragnant fillip to women entrepreneurs

M. Raghuram

Shankarpura village has been cultivating jasmine for over 100 years

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

High demand: A file picture of bundles of jasmine from Shankarpura village in Udupi district.

BANGALORE: The award of the “Geographical Indication” tag to jasmine by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks has opened up a gamut of opportunities to the women entrepreneurs especially those engaged in jasmine cultivation.

Women are gainfully employed in jasmine cultivation in the State. In a globalise economic order, even jasmine travels a great distances to reach its global admirers. Shankarpura village in Udupi district is known to have been cultivating jasmine for over 100 years and this particular variety of the flower has been used for value addition, including extraction of fragrance.

The Shankarpura jasmine provides gainful employment for over 15,000 families in and around Udupi district. They together export over six to eight tonnes of jasmine flowers every month, according to the Bajpe Airport cargo operations personnel. Jet Airways lifts most of the jasmine export consignment. Pramod Nair of Jet Airways says that they take the consignment to Mumbai.

The loaders are given special instructions to be as gentle as possible while handling jasmine consignments so that the flowers will arrive at their destination in fresh condition.

Some growers, who have formed a co-operative in Shankarpura and Phalimar, say that the airlines from Mumbai take the jasmine consignments to the Gulf countries and a small portion is picked up by different airlines going to Europe. The Mallige Belegarara Sangha of Shankarpura has collaborated the export operations of their members. The growers, mainly women, nip the jasmine buds early in the morning, weave them together into garlands with the help of “balae naru” (fibre strings of banana plant) and make them into “attis” (stacks each having five garlands).

They wrap them in plantain leaves, and a bundle of 100 “attis” is again covered with wet perforated cloth and placed inside insulated bags and sent to the airport. All this takes only 90 minutes to one hour .

‘Export quality’

One disadvantage with jasmine cultivation is the fluctuation in the prices. There is no “export quality” flowers and whatever are available in Dubai or the Indian markets in London is the same that is available in Malleshwaram or Central Market in Mangalore or near the Krishna temple at Udupi. The wide fluctuation of the cost has prompted the growers and exporters to balance their pricing to give maximum leverage to the growers.

In normal time, an “atti” will cost anywhere from Rs. 75 to Rs. 90, while in the festival and marriage seasons, it may go up to Rs. 600.

According to Bajpe Airport director M.R. Vasudeva, the volumes of consignment have been increasing every year.

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