Dubai Flower centre was developed to handle flower imports and exports, as Dubai is a major hub for the import and export of flowers and the airport required a specialist facility since these products need special conditions. The flower centre's first phase was completed in 2004 at a cost of $50 million.The flower centre is not yet finished and construction will continue in another two phases. The centre will offer an enhanced level of automation over a five to seven year period for processing flower products. It will begin with a semi-automated system with manual sorting before eventually becoming fully automated.
The centre when completed and functioning will have a floor area of approximately 100,000m² including different export chambers and offices. The handling capacity of the centre is expected to be more than 300,000 tonnes of product throughput per annum. The entire facility (with the exception of the offices) will be maintained at an ambient temperature of just 2°C to 4°C.The other phases of construction of flower centre will cost USD 300 million.
The Flower centre is capable of handling up to 150,000 tons of flowers and perishables.The centre, developed and automated have a floor area of about 100,000 sqm providing for export chambers and offices apart from product break down and buildup stations and automated sorting areas. The handling capacity of the centre is anticipated to exceed 300,000 metric tones of product throughput per annum.The cold storage facility at Dubai Flower Centre is fully bonded and measures 34,000m2. DFC currently houses around 19 tenants from 11 countries that offer a diverse range of products and varieties of cut flowers, plants, foliage, fruits and vegetables.Once fully operational it will serves as an international market with over two billion consumers.