In eight days it will be Valentine’s Day. Which means we’re going to sell a lot of roses. Flowers which mainly come from Africa or South America and which arrive by plane in Liège. Bierset Airport, which has become a real hub for the cut flower trade.
At Liège airport, every day, ten or so cargo planes land filled with roses. “Mainly in South America with flowers from Ecuador and Colombia in particular. These are our two main markets there. And our other second market is Africa with Ethiopia, Uganda and mainly Kenya “, explains Jonathan Bouchat, CEO of Fresh Express.
The next step takes place in the storage halls with the Afsca controllers. Between the petals, it searches for butterfly larvae, flies, traces of viruses or bacteria. Anything that could harm European vegetation. Nothing suspicious this Thursday morning.
“We regularly find insects and then we block, we send the sample to the laboratory which determines precisely which insect we have found and if there is a problem, it is blocked at the border, and the flowers are either incinerated or repressed “, specifies Jean-Paul Denuit, the manager of the Liège control center.
In an airport hall, we find the contents of a large cargo plane with 3.5 million roses. “We receive like that about thirty a week and so here with Valentine’s Day, we really have a peak and I think we are still doing 50% more. We will be able to have fifteen additional flights just for Saint- Valentin “ adds Jonathan Bouchat.
Between February 1 and 14, more than 300 million roses will land in Liège. It is a fresh product. They are immediately loaded into refrigerated trucks. Ten trucks are needed for one plane. Head to the Amsterdam fish auction, the European Flower Trade Center. From there, they will take the road to wholesalers’ warehouses.
Some will then go to France, Italy and a very large part to Russia. Without forgetting Belgium, where some of them will return after a short stay in Amsterdam. Cultivated for their appearance, these roses do not smell anything. After having traveled between 7,000 and 15,000 kilometers, it still gives off a strong smell of CO2.
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