(Bloomberg) -- The high altitude and mild weather in Colombia’s so-called savanna make the country one of the best places to grow flowers in the world. There, an hour north of Bogotá, a group of women measure, snip and dethorn nearly 18,000 rose stems a day that will soon make their way into Valentine’s Day bouquets across the US.
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The women stand under the shelter of a white tent, quickly swiping their chainmail-like gloves against the thorns, to make them enough for safe transport. Then they tightly pack the valentine red, cotton candy pink and citron yellow varieties into heart-dotted cellophane.
In the span of two weeks, the flowers will arrive in Miami, from where they will be shipped to Walmart stores, Publix supermarkets, Walgreens pharmacies and gas stations all over the US, said Carmen Bravo, who owns the Belen de los Tejares flower farm in Chía. That ritual — repeated over and over, year after year — has made Colombia stems account for nearly 40% of flower and nursery stock value in the US.
What is typically the most profitable season for flower growers like Bravo was nearly derailed last weekend, when presidents Donald Trump and Gustavo Petro vowed to impose 25% tariffs on each other’s imports in a brief spat over deportations.
“Tariffs are what set the price,” said Bravo, 56, who said she felt “relief” to read the news that the tariff war between the US and Colombia had come to a solution on Monday.
If it were not resolved, the effects could have been devastating: Nearly 80% of all of Colombian flower exports go to the US, accounting for $1.7 billion of the nation’s $45 billion in exports last year — coming in behind oil, gold and coffee.
“This is a season growers have been preparing for since last year, investing, paying wages, providers, coordinating flights,” said Augusto Solano, head of the Colombian Flower Growers’ Association. “Tariffs of 25% or 50% that would have been effective as of this week would have had catastrophic consequences.”
In Colombia, the world’s second-largest flower exporter, growers start to prep for the Valentine’s Day season in October, when stem prices, quantities and varieties are negotiated with trading companies.
About 26,000 acres of Colombia are used for flower growing. While the Valentine’s season accounts for 18% of sales for Colombian flower growers, it can make up to half of all yearly revenue for smaller operations like Bravo’s.