Miami International Airport is the No. 1 United States airport for imported perishables with 91.4 percent of all imported cut flowers arriving at MIA and 70 percent of all perishables. These volumes have increased over the years and allowed the various businesses at MIA to grow and to offer quick service.

In the past 40 years, the importing industry has come a long way. We have gone from using telex machines to communicate with farms and wondering what we were going to receive in the shipments that arrived, to knowing exactly what boxes are arriving (and they are also labeled and barcoded specifically for customers), plus knowing what actual production is going to be ahead of time.

The industry has also come a long way in making sure that the customer gets the freshest and best products available. When flowers are harvested and packed, the farms are tasked with getting the boxes cooled to 34-38 degrees as soon as possible. The farms send the boxes to the airport in a refrigerated truck and after they are processed, they are put into coolers at the airlines in preparation for the short flight to MIA. Every airline that handles flowers has coolers that the flowers are kept in while they are stacked on the airline skids/cookie sheets until it is time for them to be loaded onto the airplane. Most of the flowers are flown in the evening and at night so they arrive at MIA during the cooler time of day, since the airplanes are not refrigerated.

Upon arrival in Miami, most flowers are directly in front of the airline coolers where the flowers will be offloaded. Once the flowers are in the airline coolers, personnel need to separate the boxes by customer and prepare the paperwork and samples for the Customs and Border Protection inspectors.

Many years ago the Association of Floral Importers of Florida worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Customs & Border Protection, airlines and flower importers to have the airlines work on behalf of the importers/brokers and show the entire flight as one unit rather than each individual importer showing their own part of the flight. This saves many hours, if not a whole day, for each of the flights that arrive daily. But, it also adds a lot of responsibility on each of the airlines that handles our precious cargo. The airlines need an office space dedicated for the CBP inspectors to review and complete their paperwork, a specific area dedicated for the inspections to take place, and additional personnel available at the time of each of the inspections. We have 24/7 services from CBP in Miami, which allows airlines to call for inspections at any hour they are ready for it.

During inspections, airline personnel open the boxes of flowers and place them on the table in front of the inspector; after the inspector is done with the examination, airline personnel place the tops back on the boxes, strap them, and put them on the pallet to go back with the rest of the flower boxes. The next box of flowers then needs to be ready to be placed in front of the inspector for examination. This requires the airline to have two people for every CBP inspector present for the physical inspections.

If a pest is found, the CBP inspectors have to place the pest in a vial, fill out paperwork on the pest, document what product it was found in, and then have the airlines segment that product from that farm on that shipment, and place the boxes in quarantine. The pest and the paperwork are sent to the USDA for their identifiers to make a determination regarding the pest and if the flowers need action or no action. During this time, the airlines need to keep the boxes in their coolers in a quarantine area until the USDA makes their determination. If the pest does not need action, the boxes can be released to the importer; but if the pest needs action, it will be fumigated at one of the fumigation stations located at the airport that are overseen by the USDA.

It is important to note that the USDA now has expanded hours of service from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This is not 24/7 like CBP, but it is definitely an improvement over the hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. that we had previous to this year.

Once the inspection is complete, the airlines will release the flowers to the importers. The importers arrive at the airlines in refrigerated trucks and take the flowers back to their refrigerated coolers. Then the flowers are either available for sale or are given customer-requested service, like putting the bouquets in stand-up buckets and boxes for supermarkets.

This entire import process requires everyone to work together and timing. Importers and bouquet companies are currently working with AFIF and CBP on programs and pilots to help with paperwork and to streamline the process so we can continue to supply customers with the best floral products.

Christine Boldt is executive vice president of the Association of Floral Importers of Florida. She can be contacted at [email protected].