Mr Zimmermann says his company has discussed future projects with civilian security providers in the United States and that a country in the Middle East which he declined to name is currently testing his product.
Natural barriers for homes and gardens have long been marketed by nurseries, but Mr Zimmermann says Sinnoveg holds an international patent for its brand of weaved fences and is the first company to propose their use on this scale.
Earlier this month he was on hand for the opening of an international flower festival in Baghdad, a mostly symbolic affair meant to highlight the improving security situation in the capital.
Showing off a model fence of thorny stems bent into a row of arches, Mr Zimmermann extolled the advantages of his product.
'The last jail we did in France is surrounded only by this,' he says, referring to the juvenile detention facility.
'No one tries to escape for two reasons. The first is that they are not surrounded by a wall so they feel better, and the second is that they know they cannot cross.'
Mr Zimmermann later said that while in Baghdad he had meetings with representatives from the Baghdad municipality and from other Iraqi localities.
Hakim Abdel Zahra, the spokesman for the municipality, said the city was studying the concept of plant barriers 'which was brought to us by a French investor'. 'The idea of establishing security barriers made of plants has many benefits, both from the psychological side and for the beauty and attractiveness of the city.'
Mr Zimmermann says Iraq's arid climate poses no problems, since he has plants that can survive temperatures as low as minus 28 degrees Celsius and higher than 42 degrees. 'At that point they grow slower, but they can take it.' Mr Zimmermann admits that attackers could try to cut their way through, but he says they would be caught before they made it too far.
'When you have five or six rows of thorny trees it will take at least an hour to cross, and that is more than enough time to capture the guy,' he says.
'Nothing is insurmountable, not even a concrete wall, but you slow down the infiltration. That's the principle.' Mr Zimmermann dreams big, and as he expounds on the product he starts to look beyond Baghdad and its government buildings to Iraq's long and porous borders with its sometimes antagonistic neighbours.
'A vegetation barrier on certain parts of the border would be perfectly compatible with sensors,' he says, and unlike the minefields that criss-cross the Middle East it would not leave future generations with missing limbs.
And if infiltrators try to burn their way in? 'It would take more than a blowtorch,' he laughs. 'These are living plants.' -- AFP