How global flowers are auctioned in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Royal FloraHolland in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam Airport in the Netherlands, is the world's largest flower auction complex where dealers buy flowers via a clock system.

Here, you experience the hustle and bustle on the floor, see the traders buying at the clock and marvel at the huge numbers of stunning flowers from more than 50 countries that are bought and sold every day.

It is a hub from which planeloads of flowers from around the world are distributed from vast, air-conditioned warehouses.

Kenya is the world's fourth largest exporter of cut flowers contributing to 6 per cent of global cut-flower exports and is consistently known around the world for delivering high-quality products.

For FloraHolland, Kenya is the number one import country towards the auction contributing a turnover of € 406million (Sh58 billion) in 2023. 50 per cent of Kenya's flower exports are sold via FloraHolland.

Being among FloraHolland's members helps Kenya flower growers maintain stable prices in the face of powerful buyers such as Europe's top supermarket chains.

“In a year, we sell approximately more than 10 billion flowers and plants at our marketplace. Most flowers that we are handling here are coming from the Netherlands, in second place is Kenya and third Ethiopia and lastly in three lengths is  Israel and other European countries,” says FloraHolland's Michell Vonski.

“For us, the African flower industry is very important because more than 2 billion roses are coming from Kenya and Ethiopia. So, it would not be possible to grow that demand of flowers in the Netherlands because we do not have enough room to do that,” he adds.

The auction center has large chilled storage rooms providing cold storage. In these cold storage rooms, the temperature is kept between about 5-8 degrees Celsius, like the fridge in your home. If a flower is cold, then the flower will ‘hibernate’. This means that the flower stays tightly closed, so it can be kept longer.

“We have a lot of cold storage's with 3 different types of temperatures because some flowers like roses are put in a temperature of 2 degrees, other flowers have their optimal temperature of 8 degrees and we have products that do not like too much cold, we put them in a temperature of 16 degrees. We call them the ‘warm products’,” Vonski says.

Once flowers and plants are sold at the auction centre, they mostly head to Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Belgium.

Once traders buy them through the auction system, the flowers are transported either by road, air and even train to these countries.

More attention is now being given to sea flower transport, as it is considered cheaper, though the flowers take more days to reach the customer. Trucks used are chilled so that the flowers and plants remain fresher for longer.

The auction hub is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 07.00 am to 11.00 am, and on Thursdays, from 07.00 am to 09.00 am.

A visit to the auction hub 

I recently had the opportunity to visit this flower auction with a team of journalists from Kenya. It was indeed a dazzling morning. We were told that we needed to get there early or it wasn't worth going as it's all over by 11.00.

Traveling from the Hague, the administrative capital of the Netherlands, to Amsterdam was going to take approximately 45 minutes.

After leaving Novotel Den Haag City Centre, a relaxing hotel for both business and families, at 6:45, we were at the Aalsmeer by 7:30. Alsmeera is a picturesque town just a short drive away from Amsterdam, the official capital city of the Netherlands.

The auction site was already in full swing. There were hundreds of workers and trolleys being moved around the auction house floor both delivering and moving flowers and plants around.

Despite the speed at which the auction trolleys move, the care of the flower is demonstrated not just by the packaging units, but the well-trained and experienced workers.

The trolleys are pulled using an auction cart. As soon as the products are sold, they go into a large hangar, the distribution hall. The auction carts are moved around the auction center using electric tractor units.

These small vehicles are powered by electricity so that the employees of the auction center are not exposed to exhaust fumes – and neither are the flowers and plants

Occasionally, you will see a cart with an L sign, signaling Learner.  But the learner is not pulling any trolly, only trailing an experienced cart driver, who has loads of flowers to deliver at a designated drop-off point within the expansive auction hall.

Around 43 million flowers are sold daily at this auction.  The price starts high and works its way down. Bidders get only a few seconds to bid on the flowers before they are sold and passed on to the new owner.

According to Vonski, the sale increases by around 15 percent around special days such as Valentine's Day and Mother's Day.

He explained that flowers are subjected to around 30 quality checks so that they can be graded on a scale (A1, A2 and B).

“If a buyer complains that what was received is not as per the grade the flower was placed, then we arbitrate between the seller and the buyer. But it is in the interest of every seller to ensure he or she sells the right grade because if you are identified as one who receives many complaints from buyers, even at the auction, buyers will avoid you, hence your products cant fetch good prices at the auction,” he explained.

How does the auction work?

The clock is the instrument for this. It has a pointer that starts at a top price and gradually counts down to zero. The first person to stop the clock is the buyer who has the right to buy any quantity between the minimum for sale and the whole lot.

It goes super fast because all buyers at the clocks are professionals when it comes to knowing all about the products and the reasonable price level of the moment.

The clocks do not have any hands but are projected onto large screens on the wall. The information about the products being auctioned can be read on the clock display. This includes the quantity, type, color, and the grower’s name.

An auctioneer works with each clock. He is employed by the auction house and knows all about the flowers and plants, which are sold on this clock. During the auction, he informs the customers about the products, which grower they come from, and the quality.

Customers press a number on a keyboard if they want to buy the products. Pressing the number at the right moment (he has to be the first) stops the clock. The number he just pressed is the desired quantity.

The clocks are connected to a computer. The computer records which customer has bought which products and for how much. The customer can follow the clock in the bidding room from their computer. This type of buying is called remote purchasing.

What Happens After the Auction?

After the flowers and plants are bought in the auction room, the products are delivered to the customers. The products go on the conveyor belt to the distribution hall.

Each customer has their number, the number is also stuck on the empty auction cart that is ready and waiting.

The distribution staff wears headphones. A computerised voice message tells them over their headphones, which empty auction cart they need to drive to and how many buckets the customer with this auction cart has bought.

Once the flowers and plants leave the auction centre, they are transported to suppliers such as supermarkets, where an ordinary customer will but based on preference.