Flowers are relatively easy to grow in a greenhouse. Is really it economically feasible to fly them from other continent?
I recall some UK study claiming that even purely in terms of carbon footprint it's more effective to fly in greens from south rather than heat up greenhouses to grow them locally during winter.
We ship a lot of animal products (I think medium sized fish and chicken were some of the examples) to entirely different countries to have them processed and then sent back to us.
I've been completely amazed at seeing assembly lines in things as simple as sardine canning factories. Dozens upon dozens of workers literally just shoving sardines in cans, and they aren't sold for much. The tins actually cost more than the sardines going in them. Absolute dirt cheap wages, quite depressing to think about as somebody from the US
That said though, the domestic US flower industry could be potentially ripe for disruption if somebody wanted to front the money to do so.
BTW, fish are mostly canned right in the sea on board of fishing vessel or on a bigger factory ship nearby.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/03/chicken-from-china-yo...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-seafood-industry-vulnerable...
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2016/12/05/tale-fish-two-cou...
https://boingboing.net/2018/09/14/usda-approves-shipping-sla...
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/china-chicken-reshipped/
https://weuseit2.com/blogs/we-use-it-2/shipping-live-hogs-po...
I'm unfortunately still not able to remember for the keywords of the one good reputable article I know of that details most of what is shipped for processing and back to multiple countries and the margins involved, but it's out there if you ever feel the need to dig into it.
I am aware of the fish being canned on board vessels and factory ships. There are still a large amount that aren't.
Here is one video demonstrating a large amount of people being involved in the simple canning of cheap sardines... It's definitely much better and more orderly than another video based out of a somewhat open-air assembly line in Portugal I believe.
I could however be completely wrong about all of this. There is some information on the internet that is not amazingly easy to find and verify. When you think about the fact there are many countries with large populaces that are still treated as literal slave labour though and also lesser quality standards involved, so more ability to quite literally cram a shipping container to the brim with whatever they want, margins are incredibly slim, but still money is being made.
Random link to establish some basis facts for kenyan rose industry: https://aishaflowers.com/blog/30-why-roses-from-kenya-stands...
DDGing "Covid flower industry", there also newer articles talking about the state of the it as lockdowns in Europe eased.