KUNMING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Kunming Dounan Flower Market, the largest fresh cut flower trading market in Asia, resumed auction services on Monday.
Gao Rongmei, general manager of the Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Center, said disinfection had been carried out in key zones including the auction hall, office and logistics areas.
The market had previously shut down flower and plant trading, tourism and catering services on Jan. 26 and suspended auction services on Feb. 6 to avoid the risk of infection caused by crowd gathering.
To ensure a certain distance between auctioneers and bidders, only 150 florists, all required to wear protective masks, were allowed to enter the auction hall which can accommodate 600 people, Gao added.
Influenced by the novel coronavirus outbreak, wholesale markets and florist shops in many cities have not yet opened, which led to a sharp drop in sales of fresh cut flowers in Yunnan.
As a barometer of China's flower market, the Kunming-based market in southwest China's Yunnan Province saw the trading volume of fresh cut flowers reach 9.23 billion with a turnover of 7.44 billion yuan (about 1.07 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019.
