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Busy Season Underway For C.B.P. Flower Inspectors

By KGNS News

Story Created: Feb 6, 2012 at 6:22 PM CDT

Story Updated: Feb 7, 2012

The flowers are mounting at ports of entry across the country as Valentines Day quickly approaches.
Flowers shipped from across the world are being inspected at ports like the one here in Laredo, which ranks fourth for the most flowers processed last Valentine's season.
Our Annette Garcia has the story.
It’s the season of romance.
Guys were reminded of that this past Super Bowl weekend.
But before flowers end up in shops like this one, they must pass through the hands of people like these.
“To make sure the flower or greenery is permitted and to make sure there are no inspects or foreign invaders.”
Inspection sites are all along the borders, where specially trained customs officers look for tiny bugs and diseases.
“If they manage to get into the country, there is a possibility of having an outbreak and outbreak equals having to put together programs to eradicate these insects and diseases and you’re talking about economic losses.”
Laredo's port ranked number four on the list for most flowers inspected last Valentine's Day season.
Between January 1st and Valentine's day of last year, Customs processed more than 18.6 million stems here in Laredo alone, all destined for vases across the country.
“ Sometimes we'll process up to 10 or 15 shipments per week.”
Miami ranked number one with more than 673 million stems flown in from places like Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador.
So when you receive that beautiful bouquet from your sweetie, chances are it comes a long way just for you.
In the fiscal year 2012, CBP agricultural specialists logged nearly 200,000 insect and disease interceptions.