How are Valentine’s Day Gifts Freight Shipped?
Valentine’s Day: the season of love, friendship, and all things wonderful and sweet. On a day when lovers exchange gifts to express their feelings for one another, it’s no surprise that the holiday is a busy one for retailers.
Out of all the goods commonly purchased on Valentine’s Day, the most popular are chocolates and flowers. However, while they are romantic treasures for anyone in love, they are also very challenging for retailers to get ahold of. Shipping chocolates and flowers for Valentine’s Day has always been a large logistics operation for retailers and florists year-round for two reasons:
A) They are easily spoilt and perishable, lasting only a few days at room temperature before withering or melting. Retailers must use cold chain freight shipping services when freight shipping chocolates and flowers to their stores or customers.
B) Both items are imported from outside the United States, which means they undergo stringent inspections by US port customs. This ensures compliance with both domestic and international health and safety regulations.
With how fragile and far these gifts have to travel, it’s a miracle we have enough chocolate and flowers to go around during the holiday of love. Let’s explore how both of these popular Valentine’s Day presents manage to arrive at stores in perfect shape without spoiling or melting.
Chocolate
The United States is the largest importer of chocolate in the world, importing $2.98 billion worth from Canada, Belgium, Germany, and Mexico. However, as any person who puts a chocolate bar in their pocket knows, these treats easily melt from heat, which is a problem since the countries they are importing from are so far away, and some are in warmer climates than most of the U.S. during February.
Chocolate can be shipped in two forms: as unprocessed cocoa beans and as solidified chocolate. Cacao (and cocoa) beans are shipped as breakbulk cargo, either in bags or within freight containers. They do not require refrigeration, as condensation can form inside the packaging and spoil the beans.
Solidified chocolate, however, is a different story. Chocolates have a specific melting point that varies depending on the type of cocoa used. For instance, white chocolate has a lower melting point than milk or dark chocolate. There is also the risk of white marks, known as “fat bloom”, that appear on a chocolate’s surface due to hot or cold temperatures giving rise to separating fat particles.
In general, chocolate is kept at cool temperatures, between 14 degrees Celsius (approximately 57 degrees Fahrenheit) and 18 degrees Celsius (approximately 64 degrees Fahrenheit). Temperature-controlled containers are used to keep chocolate as cold as possible during transport. The chocolates are usually packaged in insular packaging like box liners, pouches, or pallet boxes.
If being delivered on a truck, the chocolate may have to stay a night in a refrigerated warehousing unit. However, they also can be quickly shipped from the manufacturer to retailers via air freight couriers, which includes overnight shipping.
Retailers also have to consider their location and the season. For example, a store in Florida will need to ensure that the chocolates are well-insulated and kept at cooler temperatures, while a store in Maine may not require the same level of precautions. No matter where chocolate is shipped to, however, it must stay cool.
Flowers
Like chocolate, flowers are highly perishable and typically last only a few days at room temperature, making them the least enduring gift for Valentine’s Day. They are also vulnerable to humidity and can absorb unwanted odors, highlighting the importance of careful planning and collaboration for anyone involved in shipping flowers.
About 80% of flowers imported to the United States during the winter come from places like Columbia, Ecuador, Tanzania, and Kenya. These countries are extremely hot during February and need to be stored and shipped in temperature-controlled containers for overseas shipping.
When preparing flowers for shipping, the harvested buds are cooled to about 2 degrees Celcius (35 degrees Fahrenheit) and kept in refrigerated packaging. They must be kept in refrigeration for 4 hours before they can be graded, treated, and packed into containers for shipping.
Temperature-controlled aircraft is the best way for flowers to be shipped, primarily if expedited services are utilized. Freshly cut flowers must be shipped from harvesting to sale within 3 days, or the flowers will go bad. Once flowers have arrived on U.S. shores, the flowers are stored in refrigerated warehouses to await inspections by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for pests and diseases that jeopardize the agricultural and floral industries in the United States. For example, chrysanthemums were prohibited from entry into the US in 2025 due to a fungi plant disease. Once flowers have passed inspections, they are packed and shipped to their final destination– florists.
Precise planning and coordination between farms, exporters, U.S. border agents, domestic drivers, and florists is essential to smoothly delivering flowers within a constrained timeframe. Any failures during the shipping process can ruin both the flowers and your Valentine’s Day date.
The complex supply chain behind Valentine’s Day gifts often goes unnoticed, yet it plays a crucial role in making the holiday special for millions of people. Without the expertise of cold chain logistics providers, dedicated freight carriers, and skilled retailers /florists, the tradition of gifting sweet treats and beautiful blooms would be far more complicated.
So, the next time you surprise a loved one with a box of chocolates or a bouquet of roses, consider the incredible journey these gifts have taken to reach you. From cocoa farms and flower fields around the world to temperature-controlled warehouses and last-mile delivery trucks, every step in the process is designed to preserve the magic of Valentine’s Day.
Logistics may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of romance, but it is the silent force that helps love bloom on February 14th.
