UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 28, 2017. The number of flowers imported to Yekaterinburg nearly tripled in time for September 1, the start of the school year, Deputy Head of V.A. Sorokin Koltsovo Customs Viktor Shatalov says.

‘Flowers get imported on a regular basis, wth two to three flights a week. The imports usually tripled around public holidays. We check both the cargo and the accompanying documents and only let the goods in after the Federal Veterinary and Quarantine Surveillance Service’s approval,’ he explained.

For one, two planes arrived to Koltsovo Airport from Amsterdam today, with around 1m flowers on board (80,000 kg). According to Koltsovo Customs, most of these are roses, complemented with some gerberas, chrysanthemums, and potted plants. These come not only from the Netherlands but also from Israel, Columbia, Ecuador, Slovakia, and Ethiopia.

Experts from Sverdlovsk Region division of Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog) checked the flowers for infections and parasites.

Some 170,000 kg of flowers are expected to get imported to Yekaterinburg by September 1 altogether.