From Kenya with love: Doncaster diplomat helps send 20 million Valentine's flowers to UK

Jane Marriott, the UK’s High Commissioner in Kenya, oversaw the delivery of a cargo of blooms to her home town, seeing the flowers shipped into Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

She said: “It’s 6,770 miles from Nairobi in Kenya, East Africa, to my home town of Doncaster.”152 hours if you drive it, eight hours if you fly.

"Twice a week, cargo planes from Nairobi land at Doncaster Sheffield Airport filled with flowers for the UK. The carbon footprint is less than for flowers grown in greenhouses in the UK.

“It’s really exciting to think that the flowers I waved off at Nairobi airport today will be landing in Doncaster tomorrow morning. My mum has already said that she’ll be keeping an eye out for Kenyan flowers now in the supermarket. Hopefully I can help bring some glorious Kenyan sunlight to a Doncaster February.”

Jane, who was born and brought up in Intake and Wheatley Hills, was previously Director of the Joint International Counter-Terrorism Unit and was appointed the British High Commissioner to Kenya in 2019.

Flowers account for around 20% of Kenya’s exports to the UK and around one in five flowers in the UK come from the country with 600 million stems sent every year.

She added: “It is creating jobs in Kenya and Doncaster. One of the companies, Flamingo - a UK company in Kenya, sent 20 million stems to the UK for Valentine’s Day – so there is a bit of Kenya in many lucky households today.”