Prices aren’t coming up roses on this Valentines’ Day in China. That’s because the cost of the throned lovers’ blossoms has nearly doubled from 2013 prices due to a freak December snowstorm in Kunming, China’s flower-producing capital. The snowstorm in southwest China killed nearly half of the roses that would have landed in vases across the country.
Kunming usually supplies 90 percent of China’s and the shortage has sent prices soaring. The cost of a single Kunming-grown rose bloomed to 16 yuan in Shanghai this week, twice as pricey as last year. An imported rose is even pricier. A single imported rose can cost as much as 80 yuan, or 13 US dollars. Flower dealers in Shanghai say 60 percent of the flowers they will sell this Valentines’Day come from abroad. That’s up from just 20 percent last year.