COIMBATORE: After being idle for more than a year, the much-awaited International Flower Auction Centre (IFAC) in Hosur has commenced its trial run with controlled arrival of flowers.

“As we don’t have a referral market, a time frame could not be set as to when the auctioning centre will become fully operational. But, hopefully, it will shift into operation mode in the next few months. For the trial run, as many as 10 remote buyers have been roped in and they are trained in the auctioning process. Various logistic options were being studied for the convenience of buyers,” said M Prabaharan, Assistant Director of Agriculture, International Flower Auction Centre (IFAC).

Further, the process to woo more buyers is underway. They have to just login into the software to participate in the bidding. “It is likely to be a great advantage for farmers as their produce will fetch a better price,” he added.

The IFAC is touted to be a unique system of online market for flower auctioning in India. “Even though there is International Flower Auction Bengaluru (IFAB), where the system and functioning is all the more the same, the buyer has to be physically present at the centre to get access through an electronic platform for participating in the auction. But, in IFAC, the buyer need not come in person and AFAC will serve as a platform between the buyer and grower,” Prabaharan said.

The IFAC, which was built at a cost of Rs 20.20 crore and inaugurated by Chief Minister MK Stalin in January last year, has a cold storage unit, auction centre, conference hall and 16 retail outlets. However, farmers claimed that it’s long overdue and wanted authorities to initiate concrete efforts to get the centre up and running at the earliest.

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