Why would the Aalsmeer be the biggest flower auction place?
-Just the whole auction building last for 2km long
-everyday there is an average of 19 million flowers and 2 million plants change hands within a surface area of 1 million square meters
-everyday supplied by more than 6000 growers world-wide
-and bought by 1100 wholesalers and exporters daily
-Within a couple of hours they are exported to almost every country in the world
-the Auction's market share is 44%
To get the auctioned flowers to their purchaser worldwide as soon as possible, good logistic is the key. The huge building is not only the place for auction, but also housing several big flower exporter companies. They buy flowers at the auction according to their client’s orders and then send them to the client's place. We are lucky that Guus's uncle is working for one of them, so we could have some insights about the whole process.
The auction started real early in the morning, so we had to get up around 6. But when we arrived at the auction hall, it was already fully filled with buyers and tourists.
The whole process of the auction goes like this:
- flowers arrived from all over the world early at night and stored in big freezer room
- they are sorted by their kind e.g. freshly cut flowers, plants in pots etc and being displayed at different halls for auction
- after the auction, the wanted ones are transported to the purchaser (e.g. Guus's uncle’s company); and the unwanted ones are put into trash
The auction hall is like a huge lecture theatre, except the front seats are fully filled with buyer. The big clock on the wall shows the current flower that is being auctioned, the price and the quantity being purchased. The funny thing is the auction starts from the highest price and goes down until somebody press the button. If nobody pressed the button or if the price has gone under the minimum pre-set price, the flower will just be trashed. In this way, the flower grower’s profits are protected from negative competition.
At beginning, I didn't think 2km is a very long distance. But after walking in it for 1hour, I started to realize the building's scale. There are about 4-5 levels in the complex and everywhere you go, you see trolleys full of flower. The auction halls are on the top levels whereas at the lower part, it is port for container trucks to loading and unloading goods.
On one of the floors, the whole space is occupied by flowers that have just been auctioned. There are many trolley drivers that hooked the trolleys on their cars and then drive on. There are so many of them, from distance above, they just look like small ants. 
For the bigger companies, they have another way of transportation -- that is an automatic hand going across the entire 2km. The driver just need to push the flower trolley into a track, then a reader cart will automatically take over the trolley and read its destination. After that, a gripping hand will come and lift the entire flower trolley, then send it to its purchaser. This also explains why the flower auction is selling at the unit of a trolley.
Giant Gripping Hand
As digital time is coming, soon the real flower auction will be replaced by online virtual auction. In some of the halls, the trolleys of flowers have already disappeared and what you see is a picture of the flower on the screen. And you can participate in the auction in anywhere in the world as long as you have internet and registered an account with the flower auction (min 1000 euro to open an account).
That is fine if you already knew the flowers and their quality. But what if you have new specie that is just invented? Well, the flower auction has a laboratory that tests the new species. They will indicate the duration and the shape and other features of the flower and provide these information to the purchaser when the flowers are auctioned. So don't worry! After the trolleys landed in each exporter's warehouse, they will be repackaged according to the client's request and waited to be transported away -- this time finally leave the auction building.
Computer in the warehouse I am most amazed by the variety of the flowers at the auction. Just the roses could have more than 10 different colours. Don’t mention the other strange African flowers. Though I am too late to go to tulips field, but I am really happy that I could see so many different flowers here.
we are going to be auctioned. In a sea of flowers!
Special cucumber and 石榴. Thinking I am in a grocery store.
Special Thanks for Guus’s uncle and Ewoud for arranging this trip.
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