Guides
Flower Import Costs Canada: What Florists Pay at the Border
Flower import costs Canada florists face at the border: CBSA duty, CFIA inspection, brokerage and exchange, with ranges and questions to ask a supplier.
What to take away
- Duty on cut flowers is often zero, but the landed cost still climbs: brokerage, CFIA inspection, exchange and freight commonly add 15 to 30 percent on top of the invoice price.
- Ask your supplier who clears the shipment and who pays the inspection fee. The answer changes your true cost per stem.
- Buy in the currency you are quoted, and check the CAD/USD rate on the day you commit, not the day you receive.
- Keep the commercial invoice, the CFIA release and the broker statement together. Without them you cannot prove what you paid.
What actually lands on the invoice
A box of roses quoted at USD 0.55 per stem in Quito does not arrive at your door at that price. The supplier invoice is only the start. Add freight, brokerage, the exchange spread, and any inspection or handling fee charged at the port of entry.
Duty depends on the tariff classification and the country of origin. Many cut flowers enter Canada at a low or zero Most-Favoured-Nation rate, but that is not a blanket rule. Confirm the rate for the specific species and origin before you commit to a price.
A landed cost you cannot reconstruct from paperwork is a landed cost you cannot defend when a customer asks why the arrangement costs what it does.
The Canada Border Services Agency sets out the commercial import steps, including the documents a broker needs, at CBSA importing guide. Read it before your first shipment, not after.
Where the money goes per box
Figures below are illustrative ranges for a mixed box of 400 to 600 stems moving from South America or the Netherlands into a Canadian city. Your broker and freight forwarder will quote differently.
| Cost line | Typical range | Who charges it |
|---|---|---|
| Duty | 0 to 6 percent of value | CBSA |
| Brokerage | CAD 60 to 150 per entry | Customs broker |
| CFIA inspection | CAD 0 to 200 per shipment | Canadian Food Inspection Agency |
| Freight, air or sea | CAD 1.50 to 4.00 per kg | Freight forwarder |
| Exchange spread | 1 to 3 percent of invoice | Your bank or card issuer |
| Cold storage at port | CAD 40 to 120 per day | Terminal operator |
A box invoiced at CAD 900 can land at CAD 1,050 to CAD 1,200 once those lines are added. That is the number to divide by stems.
Questions to put to a supplier
- Who is the importer of record on this shipment, you or me?
- Is the price quoted FOB, CIF or delivered to my door?
- Which tariff classification and country of origin will appear on the commercial invoice?
- If CFIA holds the shipment for inspection, who pays the storage and the inspection fee?
- What happens to the price if the CAD/USD rate moves more than two percent between order and delivery?
Get the answers in writing on the quote. A verbal answer over the phone is worth nothing when the invoice arrives.
Labels, grades and what they hide
A grade label such as A1 on a rose box refers to stem length, head size and straightness. The grower or auction defines it, not a Canadian regulator. It gives the stems' physical specification.
It does not say how long they have been out of cold storage. It does not say the vase life you will get.
Ask instead for the harvest date and the date the box left the cooler. Those two dates predict vase life far better than any grade stamp. A box that sat three days at a warm terminal will fail in your shop regardless of its label.
Seasonality and availability
Availability shifts with the growing season in the source country, not with the Canadian calendar. Colombian roses peak around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, when air freight capacity tightens and rates spike. Dutch tulips and peonies follow a northern European spring.
Track the weekly market reports from the USDA AMS floral market news to see when supply tightens. Canadian buyers can use the same reports as a leading indicator, even though the prices are quoted in US dollars.
Build your order calendar around those peaks. If you know February freight will cost more, you can quote wedding work in January with a margin that survives it.
Storing what you buy
Cut flowers want 2 to 4 degrees Celsius, clean water and a bucket that has been sanitised. Hold them warmer than that and the stems open fast, which shortens the window you have to sell them.
Keep ethylene-producing fruit away from the cooler. A crate of apples in the same room will age your roses and carnations ahead of schedule, and you will not see the cause until the petals drop.
- Confirm the cooler holds 2 to 4 degrees overnight, not just during the day.
- Change water and re-cut stems within 24 hours of arrival.
- Record the arrival date on every bucket so nothing sits unseen.
