Cut flower ocean shipments continue to rise

The amount of flowers that are being shipped by ocean cargo keeps rising. At PortMiami, the largest destination port for cut flowers in the United States, cut flower imports have grown 19% in 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021 and 95% when compared to the same period in 2020.

Huge increase in last 5 years
Over the last five years, the number of TEU's (twenty-foot equivalent units) of flowers increased drastically, from a total of 254 units in 2018 to a total of 2,908 units in 2022. The huge increase took place in the first three years. In 2021, the number of TEU's of flowers was 2,407. When looking at the value, PortMiami received $52.3 million in cut flowers in 2022, a 14.3% increase over the $38.1 million received in 2021.

PortMiami Flower imports by year/month – 2018-2022 (TEUs)

Seaboard Marine and PortMiami
Over 53% of PortMiami’s total cargo comes from Latin America and the Caribbean, with Seaboard Marine the top carrier from PortMiami to this region.  Seaboard Marine has perfected the preservation of flowers during their voyage from South and Central America, using state of the art refrigeration technology to keep the flowers at a constant temperature, that allows the flowers to become dormant during their journey.  With express services from Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala, and investments in technology, Seaboard Marine has been the leader in moving flowers via ocean carrier to PortMiami over the last 5 years, and PortMiami expects these volumes to grow.

Majority of flowers come from Latin America
The majority of the flowers that are imported to the US come from two main countries, namely Ecuador (43% in terms of TEU's) and Colombia (with 39% in terms of TEU's), in 2022. Also, at PortMiami cut flower imports come from these two main countries, but then 55% of the TEU's from Colombia and 42% from Ecuador. In terms of value this is nearly 30.5 million USD from Colombia and nearly 20,5 million from Ecuador. The largest companies importing flowers via PortMiami have personnel with the expertise to handle flowers, as well as state of the art refrigerated warehouses to processing these increasing large volumes of flowers arriving via maritime facilities.

Origin Countries of Cut Flower Imports to Miami – 2022(TEUs)

Origin Countries of Cut Flower Imports to Miami – 2022(values)

How was Valentine's Day 2023?
The number of stems increased slightly when comparing 2023 to 2022, from 65,776,117 to 65,902,239, but is still a lot higher than in 2021, when the amount was 46,166,781. Like throughout the year, most of the stems came from Colombia. For Valentine's Day it was 44.55% from Colombia, 24.21% from Ecuador, 27.11% from Guatemala and 3.26% from Costa Rica. About 43% of the amount of stems are roses or bouquets of roses, followed by ferns  (12.49%), , chrysanthemums(4.86%), and mixed bouquets (6.04%)

U.S. ports by cut flower imports –2022(TEUs)

PortMiami - Largest maritime destination port for cut flowers in the US
PortMiami leads as the largest maritime destination port of cut flowers in the United States, with 52% of all flower imports in 2022, with a total of 2,908 TEUs. The Port of San Diego follows with 21% of all flower imports. 

Increase in ocean cargo
In general, PortMiami sees an increase in ocean cargo. PortMiami increased its import volumes by 21% in 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021, and by 152% when compared to 2020 volumes.