UPS said today that it takes “very seriously” love and for that reason is transferring some 88 million flowers in 48 hours from Latin American countries to the United States to Let the lovers celebrate Valentine’s Day.
The florid Charge of Valentine’s Day will weigh more than 3.6 million kilograms this year, enough to fill 64 767 aircraft, the company said in a statement released today.
To ensure that the flowers stay fresh, UPS transports the shipments from the fields of cultivation in Colombia, Ecuador and Central American countries, mainly, to the final recipient in less than two days through the Miami International Airport.
The operation, for which UPS added 51 cargo flights in addition to those normally scheduled, began today and will end on Valentine’s Day itself, a spokeswoman for the company told Efe.
“Deliveries should move as fast as ‘love at first sight,'” said Frank Diaz, global marketing manager at UPS for the Americas region, in a statement released today.
“In our company we take it very seriously to help love to flourish,” he said.
During their trip from the field to the consumer, the flowers are carefully transported in airplanes and temperature controlled trucks and as soon as they arrive at the UPS facilities at the Miami International Airport they are taken to a refrigerated warehouse about the size of five basketball courts.
Agents from the United States Department of Customs and Border Protection inspect and sort the boxes for a quick dispatch and finally the flower distributors pick them up.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), consumers in the United States will spend approximately $ 19.6 billion in gifts for Valentine’s Day, unlike the $ 18.2 billion in the previous year.
Some 2 billion dollars, more than 10% of the total, corresponds to spending on flowers.
