Shipping Blooms Shipping Blooms Changes in the floral industry has shippers rebuilding logistics from the ground up By Brian Reyes n Latin America s thriving flower industry, business theory and business practice don t always meet. But flower shipping is also built on a delicate economic balance that is highly seasonal, places tough demands on carriers and brings few of the returns promised by higher-value goods. By most business standards, the limited life of flowers the special handling they require should dictate premium prices and returns for operators that get the buds to their destinations.
Most flowers fly in some of the toughest pricing markets in the aviation world, however.
But experts say that world is changing as environmental regulations, new aircraft and and consolidation among flower sellers are changing the competitive landscape. The business is largely controlled by large flower farms, many of them in Colombia but many others spread across Central America and South America s Northern Cone. Many actually invest heavily in air operations and pay as much attention to supply chains as they do to agriculture. They control their business from the farms in South America right up to the truck lines in the United States. Those farms are seeing some of the same consolidation that is hitting other industries and other perishables companies, including international fruit and vegetable shippers, a structural shift that may put new pressure on air specialists to step up their services.