The business reporter is in Africa.
Image source, Jeroen van Loon Workers in coats shift boxes of flowers into a container. Once packed, these blooms will travel hundreds of miles by road in a special container.
A container is loaded onto a ship at the biggest seaport in Africa for a trip to Europe. Europeans will still be able to buy them with a vase-life of about a week.
How could this happen?
Elizabeth Kimani is the manager of quality and standards at Sian flowers.
The atmosphere system in the container increases the carbon dioxide level while decreasing the oxygen level.
It is part of the process of preserving the blooms.
Ms Kimani explains that the flowers are put to sleep because of the system.
Staff from the shipping company can monitor the temperature, oxygen and CO2 levels on the journey.
Image source, Jeroen van Loon As soon as the flowers are picked, they need to be prepared.
Linda Murungi from Sian flowers says that they harvest them early in the morning when it's still cool.
The roses are dipped into a mixture to protect them from the botrytis.
The stems are put into buckets to absorb hydration solution so they can survive 30 days without water. They are put in a solution that slows the growth of the flowers.
The flowers are packed into cartons with holes in the top and bottom which allow air from the container's system to flow.
Image source, Jeroen van Loon Thanks to its location, high altitudes and relatively cheap labour, it has become one of the world's biggest flower exporting countries.
About 10% of the flowers from Latin America are exported by sea to North America and Europe.
Post-harvest treatments and controlled atmosphere are not used by firms exporting from Latin America.
Extra care has to be taken by the exporters. There is no direct shipping route between Europe and the Middle East.
"All processes around sea freight require extreme precision - there's no room for quick fixes," says Jeroen van der Hilst, chief executive at FlowerWatch. Your flowers might be composted in Europe if you make one mistake.
Image source, Jeroen van Loon The risk of delay is higher when containers miss their transfer window.
There have been delays at the port of Mombasa. The challenge is that it doesn't have a green line for products that are not fresh.
In the past flower farmers have been wary of sea freight due to the challenges of transporting flowers by air during the Pandemic.
The price of air freight went up from around $1.80 per kilo in January 2020 to around $2.80 per kilo in June 2022.
Image source, MaerskGrowers were forced to destroy parts of their harvest due to the difficult transport situation.
More than three hundred containers with ten tons of flowers each have been exported from Africa by sea. Thirty full cargo aircrafts would have been saved.
A study funded by the UK government shows that using sea freight can cut carbon emissions in half.
It's probably best to buy a seasonal bouquet grown closer to home if you're concerned about the carbon footprint of cut flowers.
Robin Letcher walks through his green house in Naivasha and says that rose breeders are trying to develop new varieties
He points out that the red roses have softer petals that are less sensitive to botrytis, which is good for sea freight.
It could take seven to ten years for this to become a reality, but it's something for the long term.
Image source, Jeroen van Loon Sea freight is a concern for many flower producers.
A port strike or bad weather at sea can cause problems with sea freight.
A container went to Singapore. The Netherlands received it after 53 days. It was a disaster for the producers because all the flowers had to be destroyed.
There is a perception in the industry that flowers sent by sea freight have a shorter shelf life.
According to Ms Kimani, customers don't notice much of a difference because the sea freight blooms are indistinguishable from air freight flowers.
"Although air freight only takes around 12 hours, we sometimes witness enormous temperature peaks during the journey, which obviously has a negative influence on the flowers," she says. Our flowers are always in a state of dormancy.
Image source, Royal De RuiterIt is not easy to move flowers as prices are constantly changing. Air freight costs have risen closer to shipping costs.
In the long term, Mr Moster expects sea freight to account for 20% of the country's flower exports.
Mr Moster says that air freight prices probably will never fall back to the level of before the Covid-19 crisis.
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