National stereotypes are a pretty curious thing. Most often they’re either completely outdated – it’s been literally weeks since I went to work in my bowler hat and pin-stripe suit – or plain inaccurate.
The Netherlands is famed for a few things these days, but the traditional image is of the Hollander stood in front of a windmill, wearing wooden clogs and clutching an armful of tulips. Happily, Dutch footwear has moved on, but the country’s association with flowers remains as strong as ever.
Holland is the leading centre for flower growing and trading in Europe, and hosts the largest flower market in the world; the Aalsmeer Flower Auction.
Aalsmeer Auction is enormous; staggeringly huge. It stretches across an area roughly equivalent to 100 football pitches and the auction building, which is the second largest building to be found anywhere in the world, has over 10 million square feet of floor space.
Holland is still a prodigious producer of flowers in its own right – carrying on the traditions of tulip cultivation that made them so famous in the 1600s and growing a dizzying assortment of other blooms – but a major part of its role is now as a worldwide flower-trading hub.
Aalsmeer, and the other Dutch flower auctions, trade flowers from destinations all over the world, including Asia, South America and Africa. Many of the cut blooms are exported to markets like the United States or Britain.
Once sold, the quality-checked flowers (which are kept in cold storage) are shipped overnight to ensure florists receive fresh, perfect flowers to prepare for retail sale.
The flower auction process is an impressively efficient logistical exercise (which, ironically, is more of a stereotype belonging to their next-door neighbours). After the flowers are inspected and given lot numbers, hundreds of buyers bid on the blooms. The price starts high and falls until bids are made, with the process controlled by an electronic clock, which also provides buyers with information on the grower and product quality.
The value of the flower trade to the Dutch economy can’t be overstated; in 2005 the global market for flowers was estimated to be worth at least $40 billion, with the Netherlands accounting for 54% of exports.
There is growing competition from other flower-growing nations, such as Columbia and Ecuador, but the Dutch setup (which is owned by a cooperative of approximately 5,000 growers) remains successful because it’s able to provide buyers with the quality and reliability they need. The enduring idea of buying flowers from rosy-cheeked Dutch farm girls in clogs probably doesn’t hurt either.
