The export was of course red roses – and the cause of the upsurge in demand was Valentine's Day.
After being harvested, the flowers are immediately placed in water and cooled, then sorted, packed and taken to the airport to be loaded on to freighters. The roses are then transported to their destination as quickly and carefully as possible from where they are cultivated. Lufthansa Cargo has developed the special Fresh/td product specifically for the transportation of perishable goods such as flowers and food, which ensures a temperature-controlled environment during flight and storage.
Following flight, the roses only remain in Frankfurt airport for a short while, before being transported onwards from there to all of Europe just two hours after landing.
Most of the flowers originated in Kenya or South America; countries with the ideal climate for cultivating roses year round. A UK study has found that that transporting roses from distant locations is actually more environmentally-friendly than growing them in Europe, with transport by air generating less CO2 than the artificial irrigation and heat supply required to grow them in Europe.
