Most Valentine's Day flowers have travelled a long way: around 80 % of cut flowers are not produced in the EU but are imported. The largest rose-producing countries are in East Africa and South America.

This means that plant pests that are not yet present in our country can also travel with them. And once they are here, they are very difficult to get rid of - usually not at all. And although some of them may be quite pretty, e.g. the Japanese beetle or the citrus longhorned beetle, they can cause serious damage to gardens, forests and agriculture.

For this reason, our trained and qualified employees check all direct imports of cut flowers at border control points such as Vienna Airport.

Information on alien pests can be found in our pest database and on the website of the Official Plant Protection Service.