FLOWERS: You see those Valentine’s Day flowers turning brown on your desk?
We’re not sure where our local flower merchants get their posies, but it can take a lot of hands to import blooming flowers into the United States in February.
“Every year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists at the Port of Boston process millions of Valentine’s Day flowers, ensuring they are pest and disease-free,” the Boston CBP reported.
The same goes for other U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices across the country, who reported this week about the process of bringing in live plants for the romantic holiday.
“Most of the cut flower shipments are imported from South America, primarily Colombia, with 636 million stems, followed by Ecuador with 198 million stems,” reported San Juan, Puerto Rico, CBP.
Miami is the busiest port of entry for cut flowers, followed by Los Angeles. In fact, Miami CBP reported that in 2016, specialists at Miami International Airport processed about 524,006,741 stems of cut flowers from Jan. 24 to Valentine’s Day, with 1,806 pest interceptions.
The top three countries of origin for the flowers are Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, according to Boston CBP.
So, what do officials do with pest-ridden flowers?
“If pests or diseases are intercepted, the shipments are treated, re-exported or destroyed. Some example interceptions found last year on flowers by Boston CBP agriculture specialists include species of Margarodidae, Arion and Miridae, commonly known as mealy bugs, slugs, and plant or leaf bugs, respectively.”
Meanwhile, Miami officials reported the most common pests they see are moths, aphids, thrips and mites.
Bug-infested blossoms were not the only thing border protection agents snagged during the days leading up to Valentine’s Day.
CBP officers in Buffalo, N.Y., reported that on Feb. 7, they seized 41 cannabis-infused chocolate bars — aka “Firebars” — at the Peace Bridge commercial facility. The package from Scarborough, Canada, was headed for Brooklyn, N.Y.
That would have made some Valentine’s Day gift.
On Feb. 6, Pittsburgh International Airport CBP officials found 110 pounds of dried khat — “a leafy plant typically grown in the Arabian Peninsula and chewed from its stimulant effect — concealed by packages of wigs and hair extensions. The shipment was going from Kenya to McKees, Pa.
