Karuturi sees patent, profit gains from new roses

BANGALORE: Karuturi Global, the world���s largest rose-grower, is developing new and better varieties of the flower to build its base of intellectual property and earn more for every stem that it sells. The company has so far developed three new varieties ��� YES, a peach-coloured rose, a red type named RIA and SRI, in pale pink ��� which are being readied for multiplication in the laboratory and later mass production, CMD Karuturi Ramakrishna said.

���In a business like ours, quality of the produce is of extreme importance. We are developing varieties which are strong in colour, besides other parameters like budsize and stem length. Our proprietary varieties should help us derive higher value realisation per stem,��� he said.

The three new rose types will be grown on its farms in India and Africa for the first eight years. Schuers of the Netherlands and Cordes of Germany are understood to be the flower-breeders who will undertake lab multiplication of the new varieties.

Karuturi has also introduced Sunking ��� a golden-yellow rose with a red-coloured tip ��� at its farm in Ethiopia. Some of the rose varieties which the company gained because of its acquisition of Kenya���s Sher Agencies may be replaced with new ones, Mr Ramakrishna said.

Karuturi has raised a claim for 16.5 million euros from the former owners of Sher relating to a deferred tax liability on biological assets, he said. The claim had after Sher���s accounts were recast based on International Financial Reporting Standards, he added. For the year ended March 31, 2008, Karuturi reported a net profit of Rs 102 crore on a topline of Rs 401 crore.