Two thirds of the roses sold in Europe are grown in Kenya and Ethiopia, and India is becoming increasingly important as well, according to Dutch flower cooperative FloraHolland.

Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa are also developing rose growing industries, FloraHolland, which is monitoring worldwide developments in the rose industry, said.

The amount of land devoted to growing roses in Europe has shrunk 27% over the past five years. High energy costs, tough rules and the low price of imported blooms are all having an impact on European growers, FloraHolland said.

In the Netherlands, 238 hectares of land is still devoted to rose growing, but this is around a third of the 2004 total. In Europe as a whole, roses are grown on some 1,700 hectares of land.

Nevertheless, the Netherlands remains the most important international market place for roses. FloraHolland says it traded 3.5 billion roses last year, most of which were sent to Germany, France and Britain.