HARARE (Xinhua): Zimbabwe's Horticultural Promotion Council (HPC) said on Friday the global recession has impacted negatively on the country's horticultural sector, particularly flower growers.

HPC chief executive Basilio Sandamu said the recession, which began in the United States in the first quarter of last year and spread across the world, had seen many people losing disposal incomes, resulting in a reduction in prices of flowers by between 30 percent and 35 percent on the international market.

He told New Ziana that as a result, some growers, particularly smaller ones in the country had gone under. "Last season was one of the worst in the history of the industry," he said.

Horticulture has been one of the major contributors of foreign currency earnings for Zimbabwe.

Sandamu urged horticultural firms in the country to exploit vast market opportunities in South Africa and the region to boost their exports.

He said most local horticulture companies were only exporting to Europe yet neighboring South Africa was going beyond the region for imports.

"Companies need to go down there, find out what consumers want and grow the crop," he said, noting that when horticulture firms fail to get freight space from Air Zimbabwe, they drive all the way to South Africa with their produce to load it to other airlines going to Europe.

He said fear of taking risks was the major factor preventing local companies from moving away from traditional markets in the North and establish new ones in the South.

"Traditional markets approached us in the first place and provided financial assistance," he noted.

Sandamu said the HPC would be working with the country's trade promotion body ZIMTRADE to develop the South African market with a view to establishing a presence there.

He said there were more than 45 million people in South Africa who could buy horticulture produce from Zimbabwe. "They have the money and we have the land," he said.

Horticulture companies could take their produce to the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Exchange which was like a wholesale as well as to the various supermarket chains.

The companies could also penetrate Botswana, Namibia and Angola which also import from beyond the region, Sandamu said.