how are fresh flowers carried to different countries?
Answers
Answer:
Flowers form part of the perishable goods that need to be transported with care just as fresh vegetables and fruits.
The means of transportation of flowers, and how they are transported, can greatly affect their nature once they arrive at their destination.
Flowers, and other such perishable commodities, are transported through what is know as the 'cool chain'. This is a way of transporting things in a manner that the temperatures are maintained at certain levels to preserve the goods being transported.
Two key factors to be watchful about when transporting flowers, are these:
1) The time taken to reach their destination.
2) How they are stored during the transportation.
Time of transportation:
Since the flowers need to get to their destination as soon as possible, the faster means such as air are preferred over sea, especially when being transported to long distances.
Storage during transportation:
i) Some flowers, such as water lilies and orchids, are quite dependent on water and cannot survive for long hours outside water.
This affects how they are transported. These flowers are usually transported in water buckets or in sealed water containers known as picks.
ii) Dry-packed flowers - Some other flowers that can survive when cut for hours or days, and thus are transported dry in boxes. Flowers transported by this means, can be transported in large numbers as they do not take up large spaces
Cold Chain is a process that keeps the flowers at a certain temperature from the moment the flowers leave the farms to the florist. As long as that temperature remains the same through out the whole transporting, the flowers will last longer. Before the flowers even board the transport, at the farm, directly after being boxed, the flower boxes are injected with cold air to quickly drop their temperature to correct transport temperature.