This is a wee hijack with just a bit more total madness of the country going mad
Love lies bleeding in a skip at Glenorie, NSW, where one of the largest producers of roses in the state expects to dump up to 9000 unsold red roses in the Valentine's Day mop-up.
The co-owner of Forest Glen Roses, Mark Grubski, said a flood of cheap, poor-quality roses from developing countries was killing the local industry.
The peak body charged with representing growers' interests, the Flower Growers Group of NSW, was dominated by operators who relied on imports in times of high demand, he said.
"Instead of working to develop the industry, they're killing the market by buying cheap and not giving the public value for money," Mr Grubski said.
Many of the imported roses for which consumers paid a premium for Valentine's Day would already be drooping and the buds were likely to die before they had even opened, flower growers in other states said.
This was because the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service requires all imported cut flowers be dipped in a glyphosate herbicide (such as Monsanto's Roundup) in the country of origin, to prevent Australian rose enthusiasts from propagating the flowers and introducing any foreign diseases that may have arrived with them.
Some imported flowers were a biosecurity threat because they had not been treated according to the AQIS requirement, the Flower Association of Queensland and Flowers Victoria said.
Imported flowers come from countries including India, Columbia, Zimbabwe, Ecuador and China.
The flower organisations said the AQIS regulations were not being followed.
The Queensland body's president, Brian Shannon, said AQIS's drenching requirements were being widely flouted by its overseas accredited agencies.
"Certification needs to come back to Australian shores," Mr Shannon said.
Both bodies said they had been in regular communication with AQIS over the biosecurity issue, but nothing has been done to address their concerns.
The president of the Flower Growers Group, Robert Giansante, said any suggestion that the NSW body was controlled by operators of the import market was offensive and inconsistent with the group's position over the past 15 years.
"The FGG has consistently criticised AQIS over its bio-security procedures on many occasions in the past," Mr Giansante said.
"The industry suffers from importers who wish to make a quick buck, who have nothing to do with the local industry other than to have connections in Third World countries and who sell their products direct to florists.
"It is these importers who pose the greatest risk to our biosecurity."
