Valentine flowers heading to Europe get an armed escort

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Flowers are so delicate, so perishable, so pretty. It’s hard to believe they often travel thousands of miles and across multiple continents to get to your local store in colorful, unwilted, shape.

Each day, though, as described in last year’s FP article “Flower Power,” about 20 million beautiful blooms are auctioned each day in the Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer, the world’s largest commercial building, near Amsterdam. The flowers are flown in from places such as Ecuador, Israel, and Kenya, and after being auctioned, are shipped as far away as Tokyo.

One fourth of Europe’s cut flower imports come from Kenya (whose flower exports are mostly roses), which has been wracked by chaos since its disputed election on Dec. 31. Flower farmers there have been resorting to extreme measures to ensure that the complicated supply chain that brings roses to Valentine’s Day lovers in Europe isn’t disrupted by violence.

To get roses from farms to the Nairobi Airport, growers are enlisting armed escorts to protect convoys of trucks filled with flowers. Where roadblocks are a concern, some farms have used emergency airlifts to get blossoms to the capital. And because of decreased flights out of the country, more cargo planes are being chartered to get those precious petals to Amsterdam.

These efforts seem to be a success. No shortages of Kenyan roses have been reported in Europe. For Kenyan flower growers at least, everything seems to be coming up roses.