MIA plays Cupid as America’s busiest flower gateway

Love is definitely in the air at Miami International Airport this week, when the busiest U.S. airport for flower imports expects an average of 300,000 flower stems to arrive daily before Valentine’s Day. From January 1 to February 15, MIA projects that a total of 1.4 billion flower stems will have landed for sweethearts across the country – a 17-percent increase over the same period in 2021. The surge in flower power follows a six-percent increase in imports at MIA during last year’s peak season compared to 2020.

MIA receives 91 percent of all flowers imported to the U.S., primarily from South America, for a total of more than 236,000 tons valued at nearly $1.2 billion annually.

MIA’s blooming flower trade is a big reason why the airport set a new record of 2.7 million tons of total freight in 2021, for its second consecutive year of growth.