It’s 5am and at Tom Brown Wholesale, in south-east London, the overnight delivery from Holland has been unloaded.
The stems are being packaged up and dispatched to florists around the UK.
Demand for flowers has soared during lockdown and the week running up to Valentine's Day is one of the busiest in the year. Prices are rising but Brexit is, in part, to blame.
The vast majority of the flowers we buy in the UK are imported from the European Union (EU). To avoid tariffs, now that Brexit is done, those flowers need to be grown in the EU (or the UK) but most aren’t.
At Tom Brown, they buy their flowers at auction in the Netherlands but the red roses are originally from Ecuador, the yellow roses are from Ethiopia, the hydrangeas and carnations are from Columbia, the foliage is from Costa Rica.
As a result, these flowers are now taxed, adding 8% to the price.
Read the complete article at www.itv.com.