Bangladesh Flower Society leaders have demanded the ban on import of plastic flowers in the country in order to check the threat for commercially cultivation of flowers. They made the claim at a press conference in Jashore Press Club on Sunday noon.
At the press conference, the leaders of the society said that commercial flower growing and marketing in the country is a potential sector now. Currently, about 6000 hectares of land is being produced flowers in 25 districts of the country. About 30 lakh people are directly involved in the production and marketing of flowers. But for the past few years, some event traders have been importing plastic flowers, which is similar to the produced flower. This sector is being plotted to destroy by importing these flowers.
The annual market value of flowers in the country was Tk 500 crore in 2010 year. Which stands at Tk 1,500 crore in 2019. They said, once upon a time fresh flowers were imported from abroad. But now the import dependency has diminished.They also said,Plastic flowers are harmful to the environment. These importing Plastic flowers will increase unemployment in the country and adversely affect the economy. The government must take action to stop it immediately.
Leaders of Bangladesh Flower Society urged the government to stop the import of plastic flowers, increase public awareness, increase tax and VAT on imported flowers by 500 percent, stop the use of plastic flowers on all occasions and ensure the use of fresh flowers on all occasions.
Bangladesh Flower Society President Abdur Rahim read out the written statement at the press conference. Members of the organization Mir Babarjan Barun, Mahbub Hasan, Roni Ahmed, Zamir Ahmed, Giasuddin, Fazlur Rahman, Jameer Hossain among others were present in the press conference.