EMIGRANTS returning to the territory after obtaining overseas residency have boosted Lunar New Year business for Hong Kong flower farmers.
Farmers saw a 20 per cent drop in the sales of tangerine trees and peach blossom when Hong Kong suffered a serious brain drain, especially after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
But they expect a good season this year as old customers return to Hong Kong.
''Most of those buyers are of a high-income group. They don't mind paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to get a better pot of tangerines or peach blossom for the New Year,'' said Chan Shu-chee, owner of Sing Lee Garden in Yuen Long.
He predicted a general price increase of about 10 per cent. ''This is largely a result of rising labour costs, which have increased by almost 30 per cent.'' He said one normal tangerine plant would cost about $350 and a two-metre well-grown peach blossom tree about $1,800.
Mr Chan, who grows more than 1,000 tangerine trees and about 200 peach blossoms, said this year's festive flowers would be very timely as the weather had been agreeable.