Last Minute Flower Shopping May Cost More On Valentine's Day
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - In the market for some red roses this Valentine's Day? The cost this year is a little different than last year.
If you are getting ready to buy some for your honey get ready to pay up.
Miami is ground zero for port of entry for flowers into North America.
"Brought in 72 million stems in the last 10 days," said Ross Weisberg.
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Weisberg is with Pinnacle Wholesale Flowers he said if you procrastinated in ordering flowers, "They might be a little more expensive."
He said bad weather in Ecuador and Colombia means fewer flowers for consumers but Russia's economy isn't doing great which means fewer flowers are headed there.
CBS4's Cynthia Demos asked,"So we have Russia's leftover flowers?"
"More or less that's the bottom-line," said Weisberg.
That's a good thing. That means those last minute orders will only be up 10 to 20 percent.
Julio Trias with Trias Flowers, a retail hot spot, said they will eat the cost on their end but some spots will pass it on to the customer.
"I will take the hit," said Trias.
Weisberg said with the slight hit, sales will be down.
The law is supply and demand but if you ordered on time you're good to go, but those procrastinators, that's about 70 percent of those ordering flowers, that'll cost you a little extra this time around.
A slight increase in price does affect the sales out of wholesalers.
This year there is expected to be 2.1 billion in Valentine flower sales for the U.S., almost all of them came through the port of Miami.
"Eighty percent of flowers distributed across North America come through the port of Miami Colombia and Ecuador," said Weisberg.
The only thing bigger is Mother's Day.