940 Million Flowers En Route to You via Miami

MIAMI – If any husbands or boyfriends mess up Valentine’s Day this week, it’s not because of a shortage of flowers.

Around 940 million stems of cut flowers have been processed by agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport leading up to February 14, as reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Miami handles approximately 90% of the fresh cut flowers sold for Valentine’s Day in the U.S., with the remaining 10% passing through Los Angeles.

An array of flowers such as roses, carnations, pompons, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and gypsophila are flown in on numerous flights, mainly from Colombia and Ecuador, to Miami before making their way to florists and supermarkets all over the United States and Canada.

The main flower importer in Miami is Avianca Cargo, headquartered in Medellín, Colombia. Over the last three weeks, the company has transported about 18,000 tons of flowers through 300 full cargo flights, according to senior vice president Diogo Elias speaking at a recent press conference in Miami.

“We transport flowers all year round, but specifically during the Valentine’s season, we more than double our capacity because there’s more than double the demand,” Elias said.

Flowers continue to make up one of the airport’s largest imports, Miami-Dade chief operation officer Jimmy Morales said. The airport received more than 3 million tons of cargo last year, with flowers accounting for nearly 400,000 tons, worth more than $1.6 billion.

“With 1,500 tons of flowers arriving daily, that equals 90,000 tons of flower imports worth $450 million just in January and February,” Morales said.

It’s a big job for CBP agriculture specialists, who check the bundles of flowers for potentially harmful plant, pest and foreign animal diseases from entering the country, MIA port director Daniel Alonso said.

“Invasive species have caused $120 billion in annual economic and environmental losses to the United States, including the yield and quality losses for the American agriculture industry,” Alonso said.

Colombia’s flower industry was recently looking at a possible 25% tariff, as President Donald Trump quarreled with the South American country’s leadership over accepting flights carrying deported immigrants. But the trade dispute came to a halt in late January, after Colombia agreed to allow the flights to land.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro had previously rejected two Colombia-bound U.S. military aircrafts carrying migrants. Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity during deportation and threatened to retaliate against the U.S. by slapping a 25% increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods.

Officials at Friday’s news conference declined to answer any questions about politics or tariffs.