Cut flower imports connect major consuming markets with specialized growing regions. The available trade statistics show a large U.S. market supplied heavily by Colombia and Ecuador, a UK market that imports far more cut flowers than it exports, and plant-health records that measure the movement of consignments as well as their value.
Table of contents
- U.S. import market benchmarks
- Colombia’s export concentration
- Colombian production footprint and flower mix
- UK cut flower import and export values
- UK controlled consignments and plant material
- Recent U.S. airport import volumes
- UK-EU plant-material trade context
U.S. import market benchmarks
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service reported nearly $3.3 billion of U.S. imports of cut flowers, plants, and nursery stock in fiscal year 2022. The measure covered suppliers from 81 countries, so it represents a multi-origin market rather than trade with one bilateral partner. U.S. imports of cut flowers and nursery products grew to $3.3 billion in 2022 provides the benchmark.
Fresh-cut roses exceeded $800 million of U.S. import value in fiscal year 2022. Other fresh-cut flowers, including chrysanthemums, carnations, and lilies, reached a combined $1.1 billion. These are separate fresh-cut categories within the reported market and indicate the scale of both rose and non-rose demand.
The same USDA measure also includes categories that are not fresh-cut flowers. Live plants accounted for nearly $860 million, while bulbs and greenery classified as other nursery stock contributed $492 million. Keeping those categories separate matters when interpreting the nearly $3.3 billion total: it is a combined cut-flower, plant, and nursery-stock benchmark, not a cut-flowers-only total.
Colombia was the largest supplying country in that combined U.S. measure in fiscal year 2022, with $1.2 billion. Across 2018–2022, Colombia supplied about 37% of U.S. cut flower and nursery-stock import value. The concentration is therefore visible both in the single-year supplier value and in the five-year share.
Colombia’s export concentration
The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service valued Colombia’s cut flower exports at $2.4 billion in 2025. Its report, Colombian Flowers and the American Market After Six Decades of Growth, also stated that approximately 60% of flowers sold in the United States came from Colombia in 2025.
The relationship runs in both directions. Nearly 80% of Colombia’s cut flower production was sent to the U.S. market in 2025. The United States represented 80% of Colombia’s flower export value and 75% of its export volume during that year. Those percentages describe the Colombian sector’s export destination mix, while the approximately 60% figure describes Colombia’s share of flowers sold in the U.S.; they are different measures.
This concentration also has a cost implication. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report estimated that a 10% U.S. tariff introduced in April 2025 would add more than $200 million in annual costs to Colombia’s flower sector. That figure is an estimate tied to the April 2025 tariff, rather than a reported realized cost for a later period.
Colombia’s sector employed more than 200,000 people in 2025 and operated across more than 115 municipalities. Its production footprint exceeded 10,000 hectares, with roughly 300 farms producing flowers for export. These figures describe the Colombian industry’s scale rather than the size of U.S. imports alone.
Colombian production footprint and flower mix
Colombia’s reported area exceeded the areas listed for several other flower-producing countries in the 2025 USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report. The report listed 7,870 hectares for the Netherlands, 7,467 for Ecuador, 4,039 for Kenya, and 1,695 for Ethiopia, compared with more than 10,000 hectares in Colombia.
Production was geographically concentrated inside Colombia. Cundinamarca represented approximately 70% of Colombian flower output in 2025, while Antioquia contributed 28%. The two regional shares account for nearly all of the output on a rounded basis, but the source presents them as approximate percentages.
Roses represented approximately 18% of Colombia’s flower export value in 2025. Carnations represented 14%, and chrysanthemums accounted for 9%. Hydrangeas represented 5%, while alstroemeria represented 3%. These shares show that roses were the largest named product category in the reported export-value mix, but they were not the entire sector.
Colombian growers cultivated more than 1,600 flower varieties for global markets in 2025. The breadth of varieties sits alongside the more concentrated export-value shares: a few named categories carry substantial value, while the production base includes a much wider range of varieties.
UK cut flower import and export values
UK government statistics show a structurally import-dependent cut flower market. The Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, Chapter 7: Crops report valued UK cut flower imports at £616 million in 2023, £636 million in 2024, and £680 million in 2025. UK cut flower exports were £21 million, £23 million, and £35 million in those same years.
| Calendar year | UK cut flower imports | UK cut flower exports |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | £616 million | £21 million |
| 2024 | £636 million | £23 million |
| 2025 | £680 million | £35 million |
Between 2023 and 2025, published UK cut flower import value rose by £44 million, from £636 million to £680 million. Export value increased by £12 million, from £23 million to £35 million. In 2025, imports were about 19 times the value of exports, using the published totals.
The broader ornamental category was larger. Horticulture statistics 2025 reported UK ornamental imports of £1,258 million in 2021, £1,534 million in 2022, £1,457 million in 2023, £1,459 million in 2024, and £1,553 million in 2025. Ornamental exports were £56 million, £49 million, £54 million, £49 million, and £59 million across those years.
Total ornamental import value increased 6.4% in 2025 compared with 2024, reaching £1.6 billion when the published £1,553 million is rounded. Ornamental exports increased 20% in 2025 compared with 2024, reaching £59 million. These ornamental figures should not be substituted for the narrower cut flower figures.
In 2025, the Netherlands and the Irish Republic each supplied 14% of UK ornamental import value, while Kenya supplied 10%. Belgium supplied 5.7% and Denmark 5.3%. The percentages identify leading suppliers in the ornamental category, which is broader than cut flowers alone.
UK controlled consignments and plant material
UK plant-health statistics add a shipment-count perspective. The Plant Health – international trade and controlled consignments, 2020–2024 series recorded 18,933 controlled cut flower and flower-bud consignments in England and Wales in 2020, 31,028 in 2021, and 87,125 in 2022.
All controlled consignments in England and Wales totaled 146,111 in 2020, 246,402 in 2021, and 479,313 in 2022. Cut flowers and flower buds represented 13.0% of notified UK consignments in 2020, 12.6% in 2021, and 18.2% in 2022. The later statistics notice reported shares of 14.8% in 2023 and 21.2% in 2024. Plant Health statistics notice, 2020–2024 supplies the 2023–2024 percentages.
The value series for plants and planting material, a category that includes cut flowers, was £1,012 million in 2020, £1,164 million in 2021, £1,643 million in 2022, £1,562 million in 2023, and £1,576 million in 2024. The 2024 value is marked provisional in the five-year plant-health trade series.
Recent U.S. airport import volumes
USDA Market News reports provide individual arrival snapshots by airport, flower, origin, and date. Through Miami on October 22, 2025, the report counted 7,889,502 rose stems, including 3,692,371 from Colombia and 4,182,443 from Ecuador. It also counted 650,121 spray-rose stems, including 287,548 from Colombia and 360,973 from Ecuador. The same report recorded 398,475 ruscus stems: 323,693 from Colombia, 28,852 from Ecuador, and 45,930 from Italy. Domestic Shipments and Imports of Ornamental Crops for 22-Oct-2025 is the source for this dated snapshot.
Los Angeles received 1,798,421 rose stems on September 5, 2025, including 1,179,171 from Ecuador and 492,554 from Colombia. It also received 60,630 tulip stems from the Netherlands that day. These figures come from Domestic Shipments and Imports of Ornamental Crops for 05-Sep-2025.
Another Los Angeles report counted 1,609,701 rose stems on August 7, 2025, including 1,442,770 from Ecuador and 154,881 from Colombia. Spray roses totaled 83,264 stems, including 80,755 from Ecuador and 1,484 from Colombia. Domestic Shipments and Imports of Ornamental Crops for 07-Aug-2025 records those arrivals.
On September 10, 2025, Los Angeles received 686,977 rose stems, including 521,348 from Ecuador and 165,329 from Colombia. The corresponding 10-Sep-2025 USDA Market News report is a single-day airport record, not an annual import estimate.
UK-EU plant-material trade context
The UK plant-health series valued UK imports from the EU in the plants-and-planting-material category at £310 million in 2020, £356 million in 2021, £488 million in 2022, £454 million in 2023, and £453 million in 2024. UK exports to the EU in the same category were £30 million, £21 million, £20 million, £19 million, and £16 million.
The series also reports net mass for UK imports from the EU: 266 thousand tonnes in 2020, 287 thousand tonnes in 2021, 418 thousand tonnes in 2022, 384 thousand tonnes in 2023, and 383 thousand tonnes in 2024. The reported mass therefore increased by 44.0% between 2020 and 2024, from 266 thousand tonnes to 383 thousand tonnes.
UK imports of plants and planting material were valued at £1,334 million in 2022, described in the official release as the five-year high. The corresponding net mass was 418 thousand tonnes in 2022, 384 thousand tonnes in 2023, and 383 thousand tonnes in 2024. UK exports to the EU reached their lowest annual value in the 2020–2024 series in 2024, at £16 million.
These plant-material figures provide trade context for cut flower imports, but the category includes more than cut flowers. The plant-health trade series covers calendar years 2020 through 2024, and its 2024 values are provisional.