ADDIS ABEBA, Ethiopia: Every year, millions of roses are gifted worldwide on Valentine’s Day, resulting in an increase in flower demand starting early February. To meet this high demand, Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Service commits to connecting the flower market out of Addis and Nairobi to the world, especially to Europe, Middle East and Asia. By increasing the frequency of flights, we meet demands for the delivery of fresh roses to critical global centres of flower distribution such as Belgium (Liège, Brussels) our second Cargo Hub, UK, Frankfurt, Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Hong Kong, and directly to customers around the world.
In addition, Lima and Bogotá are the most perishable destined markets where we are looking for an increase in flower demand.
To meet the additional demand for transporting flowers during this season, Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services, currently operate a total of twelve dedicated freighters (10 B-777 and 2 B-737-800), and it has a state-of-the-art new terminal to cover and go above scheduled operations. Ethiopian is the largest cargo network operator in Africa and one of the significant global cargo players, serving over 58 worldwide freighter destinations, with annual cargo uplift of more than 400 tons (2018-2019), and a terminal capacity of 1 million tons, out of which 330 tons are perishables.
Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services also transport flowers in the cargo hold of scheduled passenger aircraft from other markets such as Nairobi, Entebbe to UK, Frankfurt, Kuwait, Muscat, Seoul.
The journey for the Valentine’s Day roses begins on the farms where they are grown. The freshly hand-picked flowers are sorted, packed in boxes and then palletised onto cold trucks. They arrive at the cargo terminal and are kept in a cold room until loaded on the aircraft. To ensure maximum freshness and shelf life, the roses travel in boxes kept at temperatures between two and five degrees centigrade. During their entire journey all efforts are geared towards an uninterrupted cold chain. They arrive at their destinations before Valentine’s Day ready to warm romantic hearts.