The cost of Valentine’s Day roses is soaring because air freight rates are up

Valentine’s Day shoppers aren’t loving the price of roses this year. Customers have reported paying as much as $100 for a bouquet of a dozen roses. Florists say they’ve had to raise prices as much as 20% since last year.

Fresh cut roses must often travel thousands of miles before they appear in the outstretched hands of your beloved. Harvested by the hundreds of millions in countries like Colombia, Kenya, and the Netherlands, roses are delicately packed into the bellies of thousands of cargo planes, and then airlifted across the world in the weeks leading up to Feb. 14.

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