Bangalore: In a bid to become the world's largest rose grower, city-based Karuturi Networks (KN) is looking at acquiring a large rose farm in Africa. "We are looking at acquiring a large rose farm in Africa and hopefully by March we would have achieved closure on the deal. This would make us the largest rose grower in the world", Ramakrishna, Managing Director of KN said. Ramakrishna, who did not reveal the name the African farm, however, said that it was owned by a Dutch national. The firm has raised $25 million by FCCB (Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds) issue through the UTI bank. "Apart from this the bank (UTI) has also given us the ECB (External Commercial Borrowing) limit of $20 million", he said. KN, Ramakrishna said, he is also keen on acquiring production facilities in Latin America, Africa and Asia and is looking at verticals like plant propagation, plant breeding, horticulture cultivation including flowers, ferns and foliage.

The firm, which has been cultivating roses for the past 13 years occupies a 15 per cent share of the domestic rose market estimated at about Rs 1,000 crore, which is "expected to reach Rs 10,000 crore by 2017," he said. Its main rose export markets are UK, Japan, Australia, Singapore and Middle East while it also exports to Brunei and Spain. (PTI)