Valentine Flowers

Taylor Hillman Features, This Land of Ours

Valentine Flowers
What is happening to a lot of those Valentine’s Day flowers and treats – coming from far away – before they deliver to you.That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.

This Land of Ours – Valentine’s Flowers

In these finals days leading to the ultimate day for Love – February 14th Valentine’s Day – U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s officers and agriculture specialists all of this Land of Ours will be extra busy inspecting imported flowers that will eventually end up in the hands of many deserving loved ones. But first, they must undergo rigorous inspection from  C-B-P Ag Specialist Officers – such as Gil Kerlikowske.

“So here we are in Miami, our agriculture inspectors over 23-hundred work every day work everyday to protect America’s agriculture industry, over a 7 billion dollar flower industry right here in Miami and a lost 200 ag specialists working to make sure that what comes into the United States is safe for the health and safety of the people here but it’s also safer here for our agriculture industry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agriculture Specialists inspect fresh cut flowers at the Miami Air Cargo facility.”

Customs and Border Patrol agriculture specialists inspect flowers to ensure they are free from pests or diseases. Historically, Valentine’s Day is the second busiest time for cut flower importations. Mother’s Day is the busiest.

Last year during this season CBP agriculture specialists at LAX processed over 37 million flower stems and intercepted 372 pests. Los Angeles ranked second in the nation among U.S. ports of entry for the number of cut flower shipments during this season. Miami ranked first with more than 875 million flower stems.