Valentine's roses: one bouquet equals a 100 km drive

100 km = 1 bunch. A single bouquet of imported roses leaves the same carbon footprint as a car driving 100 kilometres.

60× worse than a carrot. An imported rose (greenhouse or air‑freighted) costs the planet roughly 2.9 kg CO₂, a local carrot only ~0.05 kg. On top of that, growing a single rose in Kenya takes about 10–13 litres of water, which is a serious problem in regions where water is scarce.

It is not just about flowers

We cannot grow enough of our own crops, so two thirds of our fruit and vegetables are imported. In 2023 Czechia spent CZK 39.2 billion on imported produce. Almost half of it comes from the “garden of Europe”: Spain (CZK 7.8 bn), the Netherlands (CZK 6.6 bn) and Italy (CZK 3.5 bn).

7,654 km is how far the average banana travels before it reaches our table. Other record‑breakers: blueberries from Chile (13,000 km), roses from Ecuador and Colombia (10,000 km), honey from New Zealand (18,000 km), blackberries from Mexico (10,000 km).

The downsides of importing

• Pollution — to have blueberries in March, they have to fly thousands of kilometres, and tonnes of emissions go into the air.
• Loss of flavour — fruit is picked unripe and “put to sleep” in chambers with minimal oxygen, often just 1%, to stop it ripening.
• Chemicals — to survive the journey, food is chemically treated, vacuum‑packed or ripened in a gas atmosphere.

What can we do

Eat with the seasons. Fruit and vegetables taste best and cost least at their natural harvest time.

• Eat seasonally: in winter, root vegetables, apples, sauerkraut.
• Buy locally: support Czech growers of apples, pears and plums.
• Use common sense: strawberries in winter simply taste like water.

Why we celebrate Valentine’s in February

“We wish all lovers love. But why celebrate Valentine’s in February? If we waited until summer, we could buy roses from local growers and support our own economy.”

Filip Zapletal, Sales Director, Logio

Sources: Czech Statistical Office (Foreign Trade 2023); Mike Berners‑Lee: How Bad Are Bananas? (2020); Cranfield University (Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Roses); SeaRates; Google Maps.