Today was a rude awakening. We had to get up at 5:30 this morning to be ready by 6:15. Although it was early, it’s worth it because it’s the flower day! We started at Royal Flora Holland’s warehouse. It was massive, as big as 250 football fields and it goes through 46 million flowers per day with a €5.6 billion annual turnover. Not only was the pure size of the warehouse and the amount of flowers impressive but the workers were also surprising. They all had little tractors that they drove around towing racks of flowers behind them. They went so fast and they would all cross in front of each other but there were no traffics jams. To help with this they all pointed to where they were going to let everyone else know what was happening. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see a live auction of the flowers but we did get to try a mock auction which was really cool because we were able to see how the business model works and participate a little bit.

Our second stop of the day was at a tulip farm. This farm is run by a family and on its third generation. I was surprised to learn about the process of growing the tulips which need to go through a winter period in order to bloom. It’s also important to switch the growing location of tulips every year to ensure the best bulbs and prevent disease. Another interesting thing about the growing process is that they don’t need to use an irrigation system here because the groundwater is so close to the surface and the flowers water themselves. The fields as a whole were so pretty and had the biggest tulips I have ever seen. Unfortunately some flowers has already been cut and the rain from the past couple days damaged the other flowers but the ones left were absolutely breathtaking. As for the business model of the tulip industry, there is a market for bulbs, seeds, and the flowers. This farm typically sells bulbs which means they can’t use the flower so they compost it and use it to help grow the next years crop. Although this farm focuses on bulbs, they also watch the market and if they can get more for the flower at a certain point in time over a bulb, they will sell the flower.

It was cool to see both of these companies on the same day because they can act as two steps in the same supply chain. The farmer grows the flower and then sells it to the flower auction who then sells it to the highest bidder. It was nice to see the supply chain from a first-hand perspective instead of just getting the end product.