Infographic: How Valentine’s Day As You Know It Is Made Possible By Global Trade

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, so you can guess the first thought we had at Flexport: Which products do we import most for Valentine’s and where are they sourced?

After all, there’s huge spending around this special day. Americans will spend $19.7 billion for Valentine’s this year—that’s almost three times the figure for Halloween.

We decided to dig in, and here are our results. Take a look at our infographic, the Valentine’s Trade, to see the annual values of the products we most import for this special day.

Valentine’s Day, made possible by global trade

Every piece of data here was collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. Here are a few other things we learned that surprised us:

• Roses and other fresh flowers are flown in every year from South America. In fact, fresh flowers are 2.2% of Colombia’s exports, which are even greater than its exports of bananas.
• Colombo, Sri Lanka is one of the lingerie capitals of the world. It produces massive amounts of the intimate wear you’d give your loved ones.
• Although Africa exports a great deal of rough diamonds, most polished diamonds come from Israel. It’s one of the few countries that have the means to properly cut them.

Enjoy the infographic. Now what is Valentine’s Day without a poem?

Some ships are red,
Others are blue.
We love global trade,
And so should you.

(Special thanks to Francesca Greggs, designer, and Patrick Steigler, data scientist.)

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