LATAM Cargo ends Valentine's Day with 16% growth in flower shipments

By year end, the fleet of converted 767s is expected to reach 16. Photo - LATAM Cargo

• The weekly transported flowers from Colombia and Ecuador, for Valentine’s Day represent nearly twice as much as a regular week to meet its customers’ needs.
• Roses, carnations and chrysanthemums were some of the main flowers exported to North America, Europe and Oceania.

February 15, 2023. LATAM Cargo closes Valentine’s Day season with positive numbers, increasing by 16% the transportation of flowers from Colombia and Ecuador, compared to the Valentine’s season in the previous year, exporting a total of 17,910 tons of this product.

The high demand for flowers triggered by the celebration of this day, prompted the LATAM Group’s cargo unit to double the usual frequency of flights from these countries, thus more than doubling the number of tons of flowers transported regularly to the North American market.

To prepare for the growing demand that occurs during this season, LATAM Cargo focused its efforts on providing the air capacity and frequencies needed by its clients, complemented with new cold storage facilities to maintain the ideal temperature required for the flowers to reach their destination in optimal conditions. Along with this, the company increased its staffing in Miami, the main arrival station for these flowers, to ensure an agile and convenient delivery for its clients.

“In 2022 we increased our fleet to 16 freighter aircraft, in addition to increasing our cold storage capacity in Colombia, which this season allowed us to strengthen our offer and thus provide greater transportation capacity for this Valentine’s Day. These results are a reflection of our efforts and collaborative work with our customers to create robust solutions that allow us to continue supporting the growth of the flower industry in Colombia and Ecuador,” said LATAM Cargo’s International Commercial Director for South America, Claudio Torres.

More than 300 take-offs from Quito, Bogota and Medellin took place during the Valentine’s Day season, from January 18th to February 8th, to transport the most representative flowers from these countries to North America, Europe and Oceania.

Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are the peak periods for flower exports from Colombia and Ecuador. For this reason, every year LATAM Cargo turns its efforts to meet the high demand that brings this key season for the business.

In the case of Colombia, roses, carnations and chrysanthemums were the main flowers transported this year from the departments of Antioquia and Cundinamarca. The number of tons transported of this product grew by 11% compared to Valentine’s Day last year, a positive result for the company considering the heavy rains that affected the production of the flower sector in the country.

On Ecuador’s side, the number of frequencies grew by 50% this season, compared to last year’s Valentine’s, which allowed exporting more than 7,000 tons of flowers, from which 80% were roses, followed by gypsophilas, to be transported to the main global markets.