How Hundreds of Millions of Roses Are Flown Into US for Valentine's Day

Roses may be red and violets blue, but it would not be without Avianca Cargo that you'd be able to gift the flowers to your "boo."

Over 19,000 tons of flowers have been shipped from hubs in Colombia to the United States to ensure couples have the infamous Valentine's Day gift in time for tomorrow's holiday.

"This represents a lot," Diogo Elias, the senior vice president of Avianca Cargo, told Newsweek. "It's not only the country but also this...is a gift."

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on goods from Colombia, potentially raising prices on coffee, cut flowers and crude oil. Tariffs are taxes imposed by a county on imports, usually charged as a percentage of the price a buyer pays a foreign seller. It is importers—companies in the U.S.—that pay tariffs and the money goes to the U.S. Treasury.

A press contact for Avianca Cargo had said prior to the interview with Newsweek that Elias would not be commenting on the tariffs at this time. The company is closely monitoring the situation, however.

What To Know

Valentine's Day, which is celebrated annually on February 14, is one of the biggest holidays for Avianca Cargo. Shipments have been arriving in the U.S., particularly in Miami and Los Angeles to be sent out to other markets including in Canada, for three weeks leading up to the love holiday, Elias told Newsweek.

Avianca Cargo also transports flowers from Colombia and Ecuador throughout the year. Elias said that the "very intense" demand for Valentine's Day more than doubles what deliveries in a typical week.

"We not only have to book much more capacity, we have to rent an additional cargo from different companies," Elias said. "We also had to increase our capacity on the ground with more people, with more room in the storage."

The flights are done carefully to protect the "delicate products," Elias told Newsweek. The cargo transports are controlled at temperatures around 2° Celsius, or 35.6° Fahrenheit.

"There's a big coordination among all those actors to get those roses and all the flowers within the U.S. market in time," Elias told Newsweek. "It's one of the major export products out of Colombia. I'm very proud to represent this."

Elias said his company, which has been transporting for 52 years, flew 300 flights In those three weeks leading up to Valentine's Day, so "some days we actually fly like from 15 to 20 flights to Miami."

From Miami, Avianca Cargo's customers truck the flowers within the U.S. and up to Canada. The other gateway for the company is the Los Angeles International Airport.

This season, Avianca Cargo made record-breaking flower shipments from South America. For the first time, the airline secured the No. 1 position in flower transportation to Los Angeles. The company was already the leader in Miami. To do so, the U.S. operations team was increased by 30 percent.

The holiday can be traced back to 496 CE as a Christian feast to honor St. Valentine. Today, many express their love through gifts like chocolates, cards, and—of course— roses.

"It's a variety, but especially for Valentine's it's much more concentrated in roses, red roses," Elias said, noting that about 60 percent of the shipments in the past three weeks have been roses.

The U.S. is Avianca Cargo's main market, Elias, who has been in "the cargo business" for more than half of his 20-year career, told Newsweek. He added that about 80 percent of the imports of flowers that go into the U.S. come from Colombia.

"It's a passion industry," Elias said. "When you see those (videos and photos posted), you see the history of the person that's in the farm and it's connected with someone in Nashville, New York, whatever neighborhood in the USA."

What People Are Saying

Ralph Cutié, the director and CEO of the Miami International Airport, in a press release to Newsweek: "MIA is proud to be America's largest gateway for fresh flowers, with more than 1,500 tons projected to arrive daily this year for Valentine's Day, which would be a 3 percent increase over last year. Thanks to our strong partnership with airlines like Avianca Cargo and federal support from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, millions of blooms will reach their destinations across the country in time for the holiday."

What's Next

Elias said that the next flower-heavy holiday for Avianca Cargo is Mother's Day. The company is already holding meetings to prepare for the Sunday, May 11, date.

As part of its expansion, Avianca Cargo is gaining an additional two planes for its fleet in 2025 to accommodate the additional cargo needs.