report
Millions of flowers from all over the world are sold on trading days at the RoyalFlora auction near Amsterdam. Anyone who bids there has to have good nerves.
For sale is a rose with the beautiful name “Miss Bombastic”. It has an impressive head and is an impressive 50 centimeters long. She was delivered that night and slept in the cool warehouse for a few hours until her name was called. Nobody can yet know where fate will take them. Whether to a garden center in Garmisch, to a discount store in Dresden or even to a flower shop in Paris?
The flower auction begins at six in the morning at RoyalFlora near Amsterdam Airport. And it’s not the tulips that are sold the most here. “The rose is by far the most successful product, every fourth flower we sell is a rose,” says Michael van Schie, who leads visitors through the huge warehouse.
At RoyalFlora, six million more flowers are sold shortly before Valentine’s Day than usual – in a single day.
Sales numbers increase on Valentine’s Day
“One of our top days is Valentine’s Day, also Mother’s Day. But in Holland, Germany, France and England, Mother’s Day is on different days.” February 14th only occurs once. 26 million flowers were auctioned off in a single day earlier this week – six million more than on a normal trading day.
The roses, lilies, tulips and chrysanthemums offered here come from all over the world. Most goods are delivered from Holland, but also from Kenya and Ethiopia. “Miss Bombastic” is a Dutch plant.
A question of the right timing
Similar to electricity, pork halves or a painting by Monet, the auctioning of flowers is also very unromantic about the price. Except here the clock is running backwards. The auctioneer sets the price, and then the value of “Miss Bombastic” goes downhill.
“If we expect a flower to fetch 50 cents, then we set the price higher and hope that the buyer will buy it at 50 cents,” says Erik Wassenaar, who has been auctioning flowers for over 20 years. So he has to know the price of “Miss Bombastic” pretty well so that he can set it correctly.
Countless tulips are waiting to be auctioned all over the world.
Pressure on buyers is enormous
He himself earns nothing from it; the auctioneers are all permanently employed. There is no more shouting or even shouting these days. Erik sits in an office where tax returns could also be processed. The only floral decoration: an exhausted palm tree.
Everything runs on the computer. Deals close faster than you can pick a rose petal. The pressure on buyers is enormous. “If you press too early, you have bought at too high a price. If you strike too late, your flower is gone,” explains the auctioneer. With millions of flowers, ten cents makes a big difference.
From Amsterdam into the world
What Christmas is for goose breeders, Valentine’s Day is for flower sellers. In the days before, the warehouse, which is almost a kilometer long, is like a crowded bumper car. Small carts with flowers crisscross the aisles. It’s always fresh here. The men and women wear thick jackets and hats.
A look into the warehouse. A large proportion of the flowers auctioned go to Germany.
“Miss Bombastic” ultimately sells for 35 cents. A cart immediately sets off, picks up the ordered quantity of roses and takes them to the collection site, where they are loaded by their new owner.
Around midday it becomes quieter in the warehouse. Millions of flowers disappear into the bellies of trucks, vans and even airplanes. Most end up in Germany, but roses are also given away on February 14th in Great Britain, Poland and Dubai. And one of them will be “Miss Bombastic”.