Da Lat City in Central Highlands' Lam Dong Province is working with Japanese OTA Floriculture Auction Limited Company and local agencies to establish a flower trading centre in the city. — Photo tuoitre.vn

Da Lat City in Central Highlands' Lam Dong Province is working with Japanese OTA Floriculture Auction Limited Company and local agencies to establish a flower trading centre in the city.

The centre will be set up at the bottom of Mimosa Pass, a gateway to Da Lat, on an area of 16.6ha with maximum purchasing capacity of 2.5 million branches per day and is expected to trade 550 million flower branches per year.

The facility, once operational in the next two years, will serve as a trading platform for flower farmers and consuming units to supply flowers to markets with transparent prices.

Flowers are expected to be auctioned before reaching the retail market.

The trading centre is important to create an open and transparent market and ensure standards for local flowers, Ryoji Kato of the OTA Floriculture Auction said.

Till date, Lam Dong Province has a total flower growing area of 7,760ha with annual output of more than 2.4 billion flower branches, of which Da Lat and its neighbourhood make up 70 per cent of acreage and production.

Da Lat has built a common brand called Da Lat Flower used by some 110 grower households.

Earnings from the local floriculture sector currently reach VND750 million ($33,040) per hectare annually.

OTA Floriculture Auction is a leading company operating the OTA wholesale market for flowers in Tokyo, which is the largest in Japan and the third largest in the world. — VNA