We first hear the tinkle of glass bangles. After which it hits us: the overwhelming scent of jasmine. About 30 girls are stringing the flowers inside a nondescript constructing in a bylane in Nilakottai, Dindigul district, 45 kilometres from Madurai. Songs from a cell phone play within the background as their fingers work swiftly. Every of them is seated in entrance of small heaps of flowers — they will string half a kilogram in beneath one hour. Exterior, two teams of males string garlands. Polystyrene bins wait close by, into which the garlands and jasmine strands might be full of ice.
They are going to then be despatched to Singapore, the US, UAE (Dubai) and Malaysia. An urgency creeps in as afternoon nears and the consignment must be readied for the primary leg of its journey by street: that is simply one other day within the many small packaging models of export firms that dot Nilakottai.
S Lokesh, whose father SM Sivakumar owns SMS Exports, is overseeing work at their unit. “We purchase flowers from the market right here at 6.30am daily. To tie them, we make use of girls from surrounding villages who’re expert within the craft,” he provides. The businesses operate out of buildings on the outskirts, lots of which function primarily based on orders for the day. Nilakottai’s flower market is among the many jasmine hubs within the area, other than Madurai, Usilampatti, and Aruppukottai. Farmers from villages close by deliver their flowers to promote on the city’s market that steadily provides prospects the world over.
Flowers drive the financial system of the small city
| Photograph Credit score:
MOORTHY G
What units these models aside is that they’re powered totally by girls from the area. S Alaguthai from Vilampatti, C Renuka from Silukuvarpatti, V Sudha from Pillayarnatham… all of them begin from residence in buses and mini-buses to reach at work at 8am. The environment is relaxed: they chat, share jokes, hearken to music. Their fingers all of the whereas work deftly to prepared the night’s consignment. “Most individuals from my village are engaged in work associated to flowers,” explains Alaguthai. “They both string flowers at residence to promote within the neighbourhood, choose flowers for farmers, or come to work on the export models,” provides the 67-year-old.
The place did she be taught to string flowers? “Nobody teaches you these items,” Alaguthai chuckles. “You simply choose it up.” A number of blocks away, one other crew of ladies is stringing flowers to be despatched to a marriage decorator in Saudi Arabia. Right here, they use needles as a substitute of tying flowers by hand with thread. “That is primarily based on buyer specs,” says P Sudha, the supervisor, who walks across the corridor, giving directions and gathering the completed items.
In keeping with N Jegatheesan, president, Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Business, Madurai, Nilakottai has 25 such models sending flowers overseas. “Most of them ship beneath the names of three export firms who maintain a legitimate export license,” he explains. Jegatheesan’s firm, SN Flowers and Exports, has a packaging unit within the city. “We work primarily based on order, and most prospects give us particular measurements,” he factors out. “As an example, they ask for rolls with strands of 1.25 metres every or 2.25 metres every, which we get carried out.”
As soon as prepared, the flowers are rolled in butter paper or aluminium foil, and full of ice gel. “They will stay recent for as much as 35 hours,” Jegatheesan factors out. Then, their journey begins. “We ship them by airports at Madurai, Tiruchi, Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram,” he says, including that he ships to 12 nations, together with Canada, the UK, and UAE. “Now we have distributors in these locations who place orders with us; they in flip provide their prospects. These embody temples such because the Meenakshi temple in Houston and the Balaji temple in Pittsburgh,” he provides.
Farmers from 300 villages deliver flowers to promote on the Nilakottai market
| Photograph Credit score:
KRISHNAMOORTHY S
Flowers drive the financial system of this small city. “Farmers from 300 villages deliver flowers to promote at our market,” says S Paneerselvam, who’s stringing a sampangi garland at a stall available in the market one afternoon. “Malli, mullai, jaadhi malli, sampangi…you title it. They develop all kinds within the fields that encompass us.” In keeping with information from the Division of Horticulture, Dindigul, Nilakottai and its surrounding villages develop jasmine throughout 701 hectares, with round 1,750 farmers concerned within the cultivation of the flower. Dindigul district exports 500 to 1,000 kilograms of flowers a day in the course of the peak season from April to June.
Paneerselvam says credit score needs to be given to the locals’ abilities as effectively. “We’re good at creating precisely what the client asks for,” he says, pointing to an ornate rose garland his colleague is engaged on. Every strand being exported has to look comparable, which the ladies obtain with ease. A Jothi, who works at SMS Exports says with a chuckle: “I don’t assume I can ever go to America. However I’m blissful that the jasmine I string does.”