It is Day 4 in the Netherlands and it was an early start to the day. The group was out of the hostel at 6:30 a.m to go see the flower auction at RoyalFlora Holland. Although I had expected to see the auction in person upon arrival we discovered that the auction was online. So we woke up early to go to an auction we could not see. However, it was interesting to see how the factory operated. So many people worked on the floor and all moved with such speed it was hard to follow their paths. The RoyalFlora warehouse was one of the biggest I have ever seen. The space was over 2 million square feet which is over 200 football fields. It is so big it was hard to see the far side of the warehouse from the entrance. It was impressive the amount of flowers that were being packed for shipment and even more impressive the quality of the flowers. The RoyalFlora warehouse receives shipments of flowers internationally and sells the flowers internationally which shows how amazing it is that the flowers were fresh in the warehouse. This site visit was the first time business has been part of the focus so it was interesting to see. RoyalFlora is the perfect combination of business (auctions and supply chain) and engineering (warehouse logistics). 

The next stop of the day was a tulip bulb supplier.  One of the main concepts that I took away from this visit was the fact that farmers wait for market prices to decide wether to buy or cultivate their flowers. As the owner, Daan explained if the market price is high he chooses to sell his flowers through markets. However, if the price is low he will sell the bulbs from his flowers which can only be harvested if the flower is destroyed. All together both site visits were great displays of nature.