Give us 48 hours’ notice and the flowers are bought at the next auction. Nine hours in the air to Sint Maarten, then across to Gustavia. Ask on the Tuesday, on board on the Saturday.
Gustavia has no cargo airport. Saint-Barthélemy's runway takes light aircraft only, the Twin Otter class, and a pallet of perishable air freight cannot land on it. Every serious flower consignment into St Barths clears at Sint Maarten and moves across, either by cargo boat or by light aircraft.
This is why so many crew conclude that fresh flowers are impossible here and settle for whatever the island has that week. It is not impossible. It is a two-leg delivery instead of a one-leg delivery, and the leg that matters is the one where the boxes sit at Juliana waiting for someone to move them. If nobody has planned that leg, the flowers cook on a hot apron. If somebody has, they arrive cold.
Flowers are bought at the Aalsmeer auction in the morning, packed cold, and inspected and certified on site the same day. They fly out of Schiphol as perishable cargo, consigned to your yacht as ship's stores in transit, which is the wording that keeps the boxes out of import duty. The agent at Sint Maarten has the invoice, the packing list, the phytosanitary certificate and the air waybill 48 hours before the flight lands, so the file is open before the boxes arrive.
The cross to St Barths is arranged in advance and cold. On the ground in Gustavia the boxes go to the passerelle, still cold, in the boxes as listed.
Saint-Barthélemy has no cargo airport, so nothing is imported into St Barths directly. Every consignment clears at Sint Maarten and moves across, which means it travels under the Sint Maarten import permit rather than one of its own. Plan that permit once for the season, 5 to 7 working days, and everything after it runs at the normal pace.
The phytosanitary certificate travels with each consignment, and every stem has to be declared under its botanical name with the country it was grown in, matching across all three documents. We handle all of that. You will never see it unless you ask.
Two weeks in the St Barths calendar are unlike the rest. The New Year fleet fills Gustavia and every anchorage around it, and the St Barths Bucket in March does the same. Flower supply on the island is finite in normal weeks and simply runs out in those two. A boat that wants proper flowers for New Year in Gustavia orders them in November.
Yes. Bought at the Dutch auction, flown out of Schiphol, cleared at Sint Maarten and brought across to Gustavia cold. Nine hours in the air, then a day for the leg across, so about four days from the moment you ask. Because it clears at Sint Maarten, it travels under the Sint Maarten import permit, which takes 5 to 7 working days and then covers the rest of the season.
Gustavia's runway takes light aircraft only. There is no cargo airport on Saint-Barthélemy, so any real air freight consignment lands at Juliana and moves across. We plan that leg in advance, which is the difference between flowers arriving cold and flowers arriving cooked.
48 hours’ notice once the Sint Maarten permit is on file, because St Barths has no cargo airport and clears there. Give us the date and we buy at the next auction. Allow about four days in total from your message to the passerelle, because Gustavia is a second leg after Sint Maarten.
No. The consignment is addressed to your yacht as ship's stores in transit and the agent has all four documents 48 hours before the flight lands. Nobody on board speaks to customs.
Order in November. New Year and the Bucket in March are the two weeks when island supply runs out entirely, and they are the two weeks when everyone wants flowers.
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