Eden Prairie's C.H. Robinson a big reason why so many people can get fresh flowers for Mother's Day

Fresh-cut flowers gracing tables on Mother's Day were likely imported from countries thousands of miles away.

Given that under the best conditions cut flowers have a short window of peak freshness, it becomes a complex logistical challenge to connect a farmer's field, likely in South America, to a family flower vase.

Eden Prairie-based C.H. Robinson, one of the largest third-party logistics companies in the world, is one of the specialists in this sphere. With airfreight and surface transportation expertise, a history of dealing with fresh produce and a special flower-processing facility in Miami, the company expects to move 56 million pounds of fresh-cut flowers for this Mother's Day.

About 90% of the flowers imported to the United States move through Miami International Airport. Once in the U.S., the fresh-cut flowers have a shelf life of 10 to 14 days, so speed, efficiency and temperature-sensitive storage and transportation is essential for every stop along the way.

If the temperature is too cold, delicate buds can freeze. If it's too warm, they may blossom too soon or, worse, wilt. Delays can mean fewer days at florists or retailers.

"A huge swing in demand for temperature-controlled capacity is not something many logistics companies could tackle," said Mike Moyski, vice president of Robinson's temperature-controlled and flatbed businesses. "We are proud of our ability to quickly scale to meet our customers' needs and reduce complexities that can lead to delays. With florals, the clock on freshness runs down quickly."

Robinson has been coordinating the end-to-end movement of fresh-cut flowers for 12 to 15 years — and the industry has grown dramatically in that time. U.S. floral sales last year were $8 billion, up 48% since 2018, according to Jose Rossignoli, president of Robinson Fresh.

The company would not disclose its revenue for the flower business, but it's a bright spot for the company both aesthetically and financially. On May 1, the company announced its first-quarter earnings results and said the overall freight industry remains constrained.

Robinson's first quarter revenue was down 4.3% year over year to $4.4 billion and adjusted earnings of 86 cents a share were down 14%. Both measures exceeded analyst expectations.

C.H. Robinson sources the majority of flowers from Colombia, the largest provider of fresh-cut flowers to the United States. Colombia, particularly the region around the country's capital city of Bogotá, has been exporting flowers to the United States since the 1960s.

The biodiversity in Colombia and equatorial weather make it ideal for growing many types of flowers, but roses, carnations and orchids are the most popular. The country now exports about $1 billion worth of flowers to the U.S. each year.

Improvements in airfreight and the logistics of importing fresh-cut flowers from Colombia and other countries such as Ecuador and Ethiopia made the industry growth possible.

Nearly 70% of all the fresh flowers sold in the U.S. each year are between Valentine's and Mother's days. That blossoming of demand each spring requires a huge amount of temperature-controlled airfreight, semitrailer trucks and cold storage. C.H. Robinson works with 25,000 temperature-controlled contract carriers, the most in the logistics industry.

Unlike most logistics providers, Robinson also works directly with participants all along the journey from growers and farmers to retailers.

Once cleared through Miami International Airport customs, flowers are quickly moved to Robinson's 50,000-square-foot temperature-controlled warehouse located on the grounds of the Miami International Airport.

Being at the Miami airport is a competitive advantage that reduces a significant amount of handling. Speed and efficiency are key, and the flowers stay in the Miami warehouse for no more than 48 hours.

According to C.H. Robinson, in the two weeks leading up to Mother's Day, 2,100 truckloads of flowers leave their warehouse for destinations across the United States.

From the warehouse, C.H. Robinson works with its network of temperature-controlled shippers to move the flowers across the country. Some trucks go to additional distribution centers and others straight to retailers, grocers or flower shops.

"Visibility and transparency along the supply chain is super important here," Moyski said.

Shippers can track the progress of their loads of flowers on C.H. Robinson's Navisphere platform, which not only tracks the location of shipments but also the temperature, light and sharp shocks the loads may have encountered. All of which can potentially degrade the flowers.

"We are keeping shelf life at the forefront of everything that we do, but we're also making sure that there's no temperature deviations in transit because that is a long journey," Moyski said.