Lufthansa Cargo transports 10 million roses to Europe for Valentine’s Day

FRANKFURT: When it comes to expressing our affection, we like to “say it with flowers” on February 14 and roses have traditionally been a symbol of love and beauty since ancient times.

To serve the especially high import demand around Valentine’s Day, Lufthansa Cargo says it transported 900 tons of the long-stemmed flowers on the Quito – Frankfurt, Bogotá – Frankfurt and Nairobi – Frankfurt routes this year – equivalent to some 10 million individual roses. The roses were imported over a period of about three weeks.

Most of the roses begin their journey in Bolivia, Ecuador or Kenya. These countries have the ideal climate for cultivating these flowers and the best growing conditions all year round. To ensure these floral tokens of love reach their recipients in full bloom, they must be transported quickly and carefully at a constant temperature of two to four degrees Celsius along the entire logistics chain.

Europe’s leading cargo airline has developed the special Fresh/td product specifically for the transportation of perishable goods such as flowers and food.

The roses are harvested several times a day at the flower farms in Africa and South America and then immediately placed in water and cooled. Following sorting and packing, the flowers are taken directly to the airport and loaded onto the freighters.

The flowers only remain in Frankfurt Airport for a short while. Just a few hours after landing, the roses are transported onwards from this city on the Main river out into all of Europe – primarily to other German cities, but also to neighboring countries, including Austria and Switzerland.