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Colombia flower growers to U.S.: Be mine
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/valentines-day-colombia-flowers-103530.htmlThe South American country has exported 500 million flowers for sale on Valentine’s Day, and the U.S. is its top destination.
More than two-thirds of all flowers sold here come from Colombia, the result of steady growth in imports that started two decades ago when Congress tried to stem the flow of drugs into Miami by boosting the country’s legal industries and picked up when the two countries inked a free trade deal.
The Colombian Embassy in Washington has highlighted its country’s flower sales to the United States. More than 130,000 Colombians are employed in its flower industry, plus 10,000 seasonal workers for Valentine’s Day, the embassy said.
The flower connection took off in 1991, when Congress passed a law that eliminated tariffs on goods from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The measure aimed to fight drug trafficking by providing incentives for those countries to create other types of jobs, and the flower industry blossomed as a result.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/valentines-day-colombia-flowers-103530.html#ixzz3JZLRV5Sd