The Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) has announced the foreclosure of another flower farm.
Site Agro Plc has been closed because of a failure to pay back a DBE loan.
According to the notice posted in the Amharic state-owned daily, Addis Zemen, the estimated value of Site Agro Plc was 3.7 million birr. The farm is located in West Showa Zone, Ajere Woreda, around Addis Alem town, on an area of 13.13 hectares, which is cultivated with various types of flower.  
Previously the state-owned bank foreclosed five other flower farms due to failures to keep up with payments. Three of them are in the process of being transferred to other owners by negotiation because an auction did not attract buyers.
Although too late for Site Agro Plc and the others, recently steps have been taken to try and ease the situation for the troubled flower firms. The government suggested a rescheduling of land lease and loan terms and an agreement has recently been reached.
"The international crisis had had a negative impact on us. Considering this, rescheduling of the loan payment duration is a welcome move by the government. It is encouraging," Ethiopian Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association (EHPEA), President Tsegaye Abebe recently told Capital.
DBE has established a Flower Administration Committee to manage flower farms until they are transferred to other private companies.
Ethiopia has emerged as one of the biggest flower and other horticulture producer in the continent over the last few years and the export of the product has become one of the major foreign currency generators for the country.
Currently EHPEA has 90 members. Members are required to be registered and licensed and actively engaged as producers or exporters of horticultural products (flowers and other ornamental plants, fruits, vegetable, and herbs,) in Ethiopia.
Over the last eight months of the last budget year, the country earned over 100 million dollars from the sector's exports.
From the total 2,800 hectare of land covered by flower and horticulture, 1,200 hectares is allotted to flower cultivation. Most of the sector's developed land is in Oromia within a 200km radius of Addis Ababa.
According to a report last year from the Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency, the country secured 151 million dollars from flower and horticulture products exports in the last full budget year, an increase of 26 million dollars from the preceding year.