At a long-vacant warehouse on the outskirts of O'Hare International Airport, a new industry may bloom.
For every dozen fresh-cut flowers flown into the U.S., at least 10 come through Miami, while Chicago gets a few petals or a stem. Back in the 1970s when flower imports from South America took root, Miami already had connecting flights, and Chicago was scrambling to keep up with passenger demand.
Today, Chicago officials want more of the bouquet. An expanded O'Hare can easily handle more flights, and plans are under way to boost flower imports by converting an unused, 1960s-era building near the International Terminal into a central refrigerated handling center with offices for government inspectors to expedite the customs and pest inspections. But it will take time, money and perseverance to match the high-volume, streamlined handling that flower importers enjoy in Florida.
“Trying to create a perishable center outside of Miami has been tried multiple times,” says Christine Boldt, executive vice president of the Association of Floral Importers of Florida, a Miami-based trade group. “The thing everyone forgets is that it's very easy to contract to have a plane fly into another airport,” but it's difficult to move flowers through customs, get them fumigated if necessary and then trucked across the country before they spoil. “Miami didn't just happen overnight.”
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Crain's Chicago Business
