London, Oct 14: An Indian company has launched a new variety of red rose called "Taj Mahal, the Symbol of Love" in its efforts to capture the hight-street markets in UK and Europe.

The Tanflora Infrastructure Park Ltd, a joint venture of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO) and MNA & Associates, has also received patent for another new variety of rose known as "Kohinoor Rose", which wil be launched shortly, said S Ramsundaram, Chairman and Managing director of TIDCO.

With the launch of "Taj Mahal, the Symbol of Love, Rose", the company has planned a three-fold increase in its rose export from 12 million in 2007 to 40 million this year and hopes to earn a revenue of over 15 crore this year. "In 2009-10 we plan to export 70 million roses," said Ramasundaram.

Tanflora exports its rose products to Europe and Japan between September and March and to Australia between April and September. It also exports roses to Middle East and Far East.

Najeeb Ahmed, Managing Director of Tanflora said the project is a module of cooperative farming.

"The responsibility of production is with the growers, while the post harvest, logistics and marketing is done by Tanflora with common infrastructure facilities and the revenue is shared in the ratio of 70:30 between the Growers and Tanflora," Ahmed said.

Bureau Report