The Hindu Business Line : Holland in full bloom, always

I adore spring flowers and last weekend drove to Keukenhof, the world's largest flower garden, located between the towns of Hillegom and Lisse in Zuid Holland, southwest of Amsterdam. The gorgeousness of these gardens and the brilliant bulb flowers just cannot be passably described or even captured in pictures. Since Keukenhof is only in the spring, all of this splendour of over eight million brilliant bulbs, including some 1,000 varieties of planted tulips, is jam-packed into a few petite weeks.

But flowers are a year-round industry in Holland. The Dutch have commanded the world flower trade since the 16th century. In the present days, some two-thirds of the world's flowers are either tended or traded in the Netherlands, resulting in a turnover of around € 5 billion a year for the Dutch.

While a spring excursion to the Keukenhof gardens is fine, witnessing a flower and plant auction at close range is a fascinating experience. Some ten years ago, I recall accompanying the then Commerce Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, to Aalsmeer, just outside Amsterdam. At 6-30 a.m. in sub-zero temperature, we found ourselves at the heart of Europe's vast floral industrial complex at Aalsmeer in Holland — not exactly the place for an Harward Don before he's had a cooked breakfast.

Flowers auction Aalsmeer

It is in Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer that world prices for flowers and plants are set. This happens by bringing supply and demand together by means of the auction clock — a fascinating process during which large and small batches of flowers are sold in fractions of seconds. Each day, about 20 million flowers and two million plants are sold through 13 clocks at Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer.

The auction takes place within an area of almost one million square meter warehouse space comparable to 200 football pitches, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

DUTCH AUCTION PROCESS

There are seven flower auctions in the Netherlands. The largest is in Aalsmeer, owned by a cooperative of about 5,000 growers. It is located near Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's largest air cargo transportation centres.

Flower auctions are held in different auction rooms under 13 clocks, each of which can handle 1,000 transactions an hour (approximately one transaction in every four seconds). On average, 15 million flowers and potted plants trade daily in 50,000 transactions.

The auctions constitute a critical part of the trading process that begins when growers harvest the flowers. Here is a typical example. Growers in Israel harvest roses and send them to Holland overnight. By the early hours, machines would have sorted the roses in as many as 200 varieties, and by the length of the stems. These roses are gathered, labelled for quality, and packed in uniform plastic tubs for transport.

By 4 a.m., the flowers arrive at the auction house where they are placed in cold storage. By 6 a.m., they are transported to the collection hall, inspected, assigned lot numbers, and assembled onto stapelwagens, or uniform carts, for transport into the auction hall. The stapelwagens are then towed into the auction halls where their contents are auctioned, beginning at 6-30 a.m. in the auction rooms with up to 500 buyers. The computerised auction clocks provide the buyers the information on the grower, the product, the unit of currency, the quality, and the minimum purchase lot. Once the auction is completed, each lot of flowers is tagged with a computer print-out of the sale and brought to the buyer's area of the auction house where they are repackaged and boxed for air or land transport. Thus, roses from an Israel greenhouse can be in a florist shop in Denmark or Germany within 12-15 hours after they are cut.

Similarly, redistribution to other European countries by land happens within 24 hours. Timing is crucial as the product declines in value towards zero within 10-12 days after the harvest.

Scalability and internationalisation are the main drivers behind the decision made by the two largest Dutch floricultural auctions to join forces. In January 2007 Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer and FloraHolland signed a merger deal to create the world's largest auction in floricultural products.

Sellers - the Growers

About 6,000 individual growers market flowers and plants through the auction in Aalsmeer. Beginning this year, growers from countries outside the European Union have been allowed to join the cooperative. This new group is comprised mostly of Dutch growers who have emigrated to Kenya and Uganda and growers from India andIsrael.

Dutch growers are world famous for their expertise in floriculture. It is here that the most advanced cultural techniques and new products are developed. More than 13,000 varieties are offered for sale at Aalsmeer. A special department known as the "Test Centre" tests flower quality, simulating end-user conditions.

World Floriculture Leadership

The European flower industry has led the way in floriculture production, research, education and training, development of post-harvest handling and storage technology; marketing strategies; grades and standards; and transportation systems.

Countries within and outside the European region depend on product innovation from Europe to yield new flower varieties. Innovative floriculture production systems have been promoted and exported to other regions of the world. Even floral design concepts have been defined by the European flower industry.

Europeans Adore Flowers

Germany boasts the highest per capita consumption rate about 35 euro per person per year. And, the European flower business seems recession proof.

Even during an economic depression, people in the flower industry are able to continue in business. When times are bad, flowers do make people feel better. Today, oil prices may be set on OPEC terms and films may be made in Bollywood but, flowers come from Aalsmeer.

(The author is a former Europe Director of CII and now lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback can be sent to mohan.murti@t-online.de)

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