14 Feb 2022: Everyone wants flowers on Valentine's Day, no matter how much you have to pay for it. Europe has one of the highest demands for flowers, and Kenya is seizing this opportunity.Being Africa’s leading producer, they have ordered Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines in addition to Kenya airways to get every lover in Europe a bouquet of fresh Kenyan flowers.

Apparently, Kenyan flower growers are currently experiencing shipment delays, which is why additional airlines were brought into the picture to help ease up the tension.

Qatar Airways was provided with five “additional ad-hoc flights” to freight the flowers from Kenya to Europe between late January and mid February, while Ethiopian Airlines was given 24 flights to do the same. This is according to Gilbert Kibe, the Director General of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, who spoke to Bloomberg.

Valentine’s day is the Kenya’s busiest period, since this day alone accounts for 50% of the country's annual flower shipments. Typically, the flowers are exported by being placed in the pet spaces of passenger flights. However, during Valentine’s season the demands rise to 5,200 tons of flowers, and obviously these pet spaces aren’t enough to meet these massive demands. Despite the introduction of additional freighters, shipment capacity would still be short of 2000 tons.

Evidently, the cost is another problem, Kenyan flower growers have to deal with the rise in air freight charges which is about $5.70 to freight a 1 kg load of flower from Kenya to Amsterdam and other parts of Europe. So, its definitely not all roses and tulips down there.