I started the day off early by getting on a bus to go to Royal FloraHolland with the Plus3 group. I was looking forward to this day as my group had to research the company beforehand. The company hosts the largest flower auction in the world. When we walked into the department where they get the flowers ready for the auction, the first thing you think is wow. The building is very large in size (around 250 football fields) and flowers were being transported by the workers who were zooming across the building. It was chaotic you could say but very organized at the same time. I thought it was cool how fast their workflow speed is. It makes sense when around 46 million flowers are being sold per day. The whole experience of being there and seeing the auction clock was very fascinating. It was nice being able to see it all in person.
The next place we stopped at was a tulip farm owned by Dean Jansze who is a third-generation tulip farmer. He was our tour guide while we were there. He showed us around the farm and explained the process of how they produce and grow the tulips. The whole process uses sustainability as they use the bulbs of the tulips to grow more. I learned there that “sick plants” can arise from the process and how to tell the difference in appearance. The company will then just remove them, so they don’t affect the other good plants. The Netherlands hosts a good environment to grow tulips as the land provides good amounts of water for the plants to grow. That makes sense when one-thirds of the Netherlands is under sea level. The whole trip taught me a lot.
Overall, I learned more about the supply chain of tulips. It starts from harvesting them to shipping them off to a selling company. Then that selling company can sell them off to a customer looking to buy tulips. All these steps are necessary for the chain to work. I really enjoyed today and seeing how the whole process works in person.
