If you bought a rose for your loved one this Valentine's Day, there is a chance it has travelled a very long way.

Figures from the Federal Department of Agriculture show that Australia imported more than 9 million rose stems this month, with the majority sourced from Kenya.

Since the start of February, 5.22 million rose stems had been imported from Kenya, up by nearly 850,000 roses in the same period last year.

It is understood to be a record for the Kenyan rose trade to Australia.

Jasmin McFadden, who runs a flower shop in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, said she was surprised when told the roses she was being sent were from Kenya.

"It would appear that local supply cannot keep up with demand, especially around Valentine's Day, so they're all imported unfortunately," she said.

"It's quite amazing. It's a very long flight, without water too."

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Kenya is one of the world's biggest exporters of roses, and according to the Kenya Flower Council (KFC), the nation's floriculture industry earned Kenya shillings 62.9 billion ($AU792million) in 2015.

The Council's website said flower farms in Kenya employ more than 100,000 people and are on track to expand greatly over the next five years.

Earlier this year, Kenya Airways Cargo (KQ Cargo) entered into an agreement with QANTAS to export flowers to Australia.

In its press statement, KQ Cargo said it was aiming to freight over 30 tonnes of flowers into Australia every month.

KQ Cargo sales manager Patricia Odida said Kenya Airways' relationship with the Australian airline had enabled the success of the new service to uplift flowers via Johannesburg into Sydney and Melbourne.

"This is a major game changer for Kenya in terms of increasing trade exports of flowers to non-traditional markets," Ms Odida said.

"This partnership opens up the Australian market for exporters and is a business opportunity for us to generate revenue."

Australian roses struggling to compete

The increase of flower imports to Australia is putting pressure on local growers according to the Flower Association.

Executive officer Shane Holborn said the rise of imports had been exponential and was putting some Australian producers out of business.

"A lot of our local growers are pretty disappointed by the ready-availability of imported roses," he told ABC Rural.

"They've been coming in for years for Valentine's Day only, and then over the last five to eight years they've really been ramping up almost exponentially year on year.

"There's a lot of growers who have gone out of business.

"I was speaking to a rose breeder based in Victoria and he was saying at least half of the rose growers on his books have dropped off and not growing any longer.

"And that's mainly because they can't compete against imports on price."

Mr Holborn said flower imports would no doubt continue and industry was pushing for tighter biosecurity.

"Our biggest fear at the moment is what we feel is insufficient biosecurity protocols in place at the border," he said.

"There's a number of issues such as insects coming in on certified pathways and also the packaging tends to deteriorate more than it should, which poses a risk at point of entry that boxes are open, collapsed or compromised."