Plan Pétalo receives National Export Award

Moving fresh-cut flowers from Colombian farms to customers around the world is a time-critical logistics operation. As a highly perishable product, flowers depend on an uninterrupted export chain in which road transportation, cold-chain management, cargo handling, inspections, security, customs procedures and airfreight capacity must work in close coordination.

For two decades, Plan Pétalo, an initiative led by the Colombian Association of Flower Exporters (Asocolflores), has provided a platform for that coordination.

The initiative has now received the 2026 National Export Award, presented by the Colombian Association of Foreign Trade (Analdex) and ProColombia, in the Export Cooperation category, recognizing its contribution to Colombia’s foreign trade through collaboration and the development of collective export capabilities.

© Asocolflores

The recognition comes as Plan Pétalo marks its 20th anniversary, highlighting a model that has evolved alongside one of Colombia’s most sophisticated agricultural export supply chains.

Coordinating a time-critical export operation
The scale of Colombia’s flower exports illustrates why this coordination matters.

Today, Colombian flowers reach more than 100 international markets. During peak seasons such as Valentine’s Day, close to 70,000 tons of flowers are mobilized within a highly concentrated shipping window, placing exceptional demands on transportation networks, airport and port infrastructure, cargo terminals and inspection processes.

At Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport, the country’s main gateway for flower exports, more than 650 trucks can arrive each day during peak operations, with logistics activities running around the clock.

For a product whose commercial value and quality are directly linked to time and temperature, disruptions at any point in this chain, from road access and cargo reception to inspections or terminal congestion, can affect delivery schedules, product condition and customer commitments.

Plan Pétalo was created to manage precisely this type of operational complexity.

The initiative provides a sector-wide coordination mechanism connecting growers, government agencies, airport and port authorities, logistics operators, transportation companies and other strategic partners.

Through advance planning, technical working sessions and real-time coordination during peak periods, the model helps stakeholders identify potential bottlenecks, anticipate operational risks, establish response protocols and coordinate solutions before disruptions affect export flows.

From coordination to measurable operational capacity
The model is particularly active in preparation for Colombia’s two major flower export seasons: Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

For the 2026 Valentine’s Day season alone, Asocolflores conducted 44 technical sessions beginning in the second half of 2025 with member companies and stakeholders from the airport and port communities.

© Asocolflores

During the peak export period, 113 operational requests and incidents were managed, including issues related to road blockages, contingencies and congestion at cargo terminals.

These figures illustrate an important characteristic of Plan Pétalo: it is not only a forum for dialogue. It is an operational coordination platform designed to translate public-private collaboration into greater supply-chain resilience, reliability and export readiness.

For Colombia’s flower industry, where logistics performance is inseparable from product quality, this collective capability has become an important component of international competitiveness.

A strategic asset in an increasingly demanding global market
The award comes at a particularly relevant moment for Colombian floriculture.

As exporters operate in an increasingly complex global trading environment, characterized by higher operating costs, tighter margins and growing competitive pressure, logistics efficiency and supply-chain resilience become increasingly important sources of competitiveness.

Plan Pétalo provides the industry with an established platform to continue improving those capabilities, reducing operational risk, strengthening preparedness and facilitating coordinated responses across the export chain.

© Asocolflores

“This award recognizes something that goes beyond a single export operation. It recognizes our ability to build the conditions that allow thousands of export operations to perform better,” said Laura Valdivieso, Executive President of Asocolflores. “For a highly perishable product such as flowers, logistics is an integral part of competitiveness. Plan Pétalo demonstrates that when companies, government authorities and logistics partners work together, cooperation itself can become a competitive advantage.”

The recognition also acknowledges the work of the Asocolflores team and the numerous public and private partners that have contributed to the initiative over the years.

For Asocolflores, the award reinforces a principle that has guided Plan Pétalo since its creation: international competitiveness also depends on the ability to cooperate domestically.

After two decades, Plan Pétalo continues to provide the coordination infrastructure behind the brand, Flowers of Colombia from farms to international customers, helping a highly perishable product move through a complex logistics network safely, efficiently and on time.