It became known whether Russians will have enough flowers for March 8

On March 8, Russian women will definitely not be left without flowers. At the same time, they can count not only on home-grown roses, but also on luxurious imported ones, and this despite anti-Russian sanctions. Ecuador and Kenya will help. On the eve of the women’s holiday, an MK correspondent visited the Moscow customs office of the Federal Customs Service of Russia and saw where flowers from abroad come from and in what form.

Already on February 21, trucks with flowers intended for the women’s holiday arrived at the Moscow customs (Leningrad customs post). The flow of refrigerated trucks filled with fragrant boxes has doubled these days compared to January. During the peak season, 15–20 cars pass through customs per day, each of them containing approximately 100,000–200,000 pieces of flowers. It must be said that the flow of flower carriers increases not only on the eve of March 8, but also in early February, when the demand for fresh flowers grows due to Valentine’s Day, and traditionally three weeks before September 1.

Roses rightfully continue to hold the crown of the “queen of flowers”. And they have always been and will be in first place in popularity among Russian ladies. As representatives of the Federal Customs Service told us, more than 40% of the flowers imported to Russia are roses. In second place are chrysanthemums, followed by carnations and tulips. If we count in tons, then in January-February the customs authorities processed over 12.5 thousand tons of freshly cut flowers, of which the largest number were roses – 5.3 thousand tons, chrysanthemums – 2.8 thousand tons and carnations – 780 tons. This situation, by the way, persisted for many previous years.

We witnessed how a truck, filled to the brim with boxes with images of roses, drives up to the customs control zone of a temporary storage warehouse for inspection.

Workers take out boxes. Flowers from Ecuador arrived to us via a very roundabout route on a Latvian road carrier. Flowers are perishable products, and therefore they are transported in refrigerated trucks, where the temperature does not exceed +3…4°. It’s amazing what a long journey these boxes made with the bouquets sleeping inside! The route is as follows: from Ecuador, flowers are delivered by plane or sea vessel to the Netherlands, where a world-famous flower hub has been created, an auction is held there with the participation of buyers from all over the world, and then the flower products are sent to different parts of the globe. To get to the Moscow region, the flowers traveled by car from the Netherlands to the unfriendly Baltic states for about two days, the car stood there at the border for four days (!) and then it took less than a day to get to Moscow customs. That turns out to be about a week on the road! After customs, the vans will transport the boxes to Moscow and other regions, to their customers.

“Before the sanctions, the travel time was much shorter—cars crossed the border with the Baltics in a maximum of 1–2 hours,” says Rafael Ainullin, head of the customs control service of the Moscow Customs. — Flowers are not delayed at customs; they are passed through as a priority and quickly.

Customs officers must open some boxes and conduct random inspections. “We look at the type, assortment, how many stems are in one bouquet and the number of bouquets, as well as weight characteristics. — The Federal Customs Service employee opens the box, carefully takes out a bouquet of fuchsia roses, like a crystal thing, and the air is filled with their aroma. “There are four types of roses in the box.”

For now, roses, carnations and chrysanthemums lie in boxes, huddled closely together, and seem to be sleeping, but on March 8, and maybe earlier, they will make someone happy, find their owners, albeit for a short time… They will fluff up, open up, come to life and decorate someone’s home. And this makes my soul warm.

By the way, Russian women don’t have to worry about getting bouquets with spider bugs or other unpleasant creatures in their hands: before customs control, plants undergo phytosanitary control – Rosselkhoznadzor employees check them for various harmful parasites in order to prevent infection in our domestic market.

“Since February 21, on the eve of International Women’s Day, the volume of supplies of cut flowers has increased,” Evgeniy Khanov, head of the department of the Main Directorate “Center for Monitoring and Operational Control of the Federal Customs Service of Russia”, cited the figures. — Every day, customs officers release from 300 to 400 tons of flower products, that’s 15–20 cars. Registration is standard, very fast, flowers are released within 4 hours, almost 63% of declarations for these products are issued automatically, that is, without the participation of a customs official.

Anti-Russian sanctions affected, as mentioned above, the length of travel time. At the same time, the delivery routes for aromatic products, according to Evgeniy Khanov, have not changed. In addition, foreign economic activity in this area is complicated by problems in mutual settlements. But at the same time, according to Khanov, the volume of flower products supplied to the Russian Federation from abroad, compared to 2021 (when sanctions began to be introduced), even increased in 2023.

As for the cost of flowers, on average it has increased by about 10%, but this is due to exchange rate differences, inflation, etc. Last year, according to FCS estimates, the price for a rose after customs clearance was about 45 rubles, and this year it was 50 rubles. per flower (but the price at retail outlets can vary greatly). The share of adjustments to the customs value of flower products does not exceed 7% of the total declaration volume.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29225 dated February 28, 2024

Newspaper headline:
Customs gives flowers