On a flat, 20 hectare site south-west of Addis Ababa, dozens of women in straw hats and men in baseball caps dig trenches, laying the groundwork for the latest entrant in a multi-million-dollar industry that is starting to bloom in the Horn of Africa.

In just a few months, orange and pink roses should be poking through the earth and another flower farm will be up and running, part of a horticultural sector emerging in a nation more often associated with famine than business.