Demand is high and there was not enough space on already scheduled flights. About 70 percent of the flowers that come from Kenya are distributed through Europe via the Netherlands.
Many Valentine’s Day flowers sold in Europe come from African countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya. Transport is more than twice as expensive as last year and partly because of this, the price of a bunch of flowers will be a lot higher on 14 February.
Earlier it became clear that flowers for Valentine’s Day are more expensive this year due to the sharp rise in energy costs for flower growers and scarcity in the supply. It was also known that there is a shortage of air freight capacity to transport all flowers to the Netherlands. Even with the 29 extra cargo flights, which will be operated by Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways from the end of January, there is not enough space to transport all the flowers, according to the Kenyan flower sector.