People might be able to get their loved ones an extra boquet of flowers this year as 940 million flowers have gone through the Miami International Airport.
As Valentine’s Day gets closer with February 14 only a few days away, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport have processed almost one million cut flower stems as various types of flowers arrived from hundreds of flights, mostly from Colombia and Ecuador, to Miami in order to be sold by florists and supermarkets across both America and Canada.
Around 90 percent of the fresh cut flowers being sold for Valentine’s Day in the country come through Miami, while the other 10 percent pass through Los Angeles.
Miami’s largest flower importer is Avianca Cargo, based in Medellín, Colombia. In the past three weeks, the company has transported about 18,000 tons of flowers on 300 full cargo flights, senior vice president Diogo Elias said during a news conference last week 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 percent 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 percent increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods.
Officials at Friday’s news conference declined to answer any questions about politics or tariffs.
Additional reporting from The Associated Press.
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