Welcome back! Today was all about the Netherlands flower and bulb business. We started off the day early, leaving the hotel at 6am to travel to the Royal Flora Holland auction house.

Royal Flora Holland is the biggest flower and bulb exporter in the Netherlands. It’s run as a cooperative between many different farms and farmers in the Netherlands. Royal Flora Holland sells flowers and bulbs through a unique auction system. Instead of starting at a low price and going up, the price starts high and falls with time, and at any point someone can stop the clock and buy the lot at that price.

The auction starts early in the morning each day and typically only takes a couple of hours. In the past, it used to take place in person at the warehouse in special rooms, but now it’s all done online. We were able to walk up above the warehouse floor on catwalks and watch the workers down below. The amount of product they have to move through each day is astounding, as was the efficiency and organization of the employees that we watched. Attached is a photo of just a small portion of the 775000 square meter warehouse that we walked through.

After visiting the warehouse, we travelled to De Tulperij to see where the flower bulbs are actually grown. The owner gave us a lovely tour of the farm while he explained the process of growing and harvesting bulbs. At De Tulperij, their main exports are tulip bulbs, daffodil bulbs, and hyacinth bulbs. Each bulb requires a different method of reproduction, and some require more time than others.

He explained how they constantly rotate which flowers are grown where to keep the soil healthy. Every year, De Tulperij digs up around one million bulbs and replants seven hundred thousand of those bulbs, selling the remaining three hundred thousand. That doesn’t leave much of a buffer for years where the crop might not be as strong, meaning the business relies heavily on the cooperative they are a part of at Royal Flora Holland for insurance that their profits are protected.

After the very informative tour, we were able to take some pictures in the tulip fields. Although at this point in the season most of the flowers have been cut so the plants can focus all their energy on their bulbs, there were some red tulips left. Attached is the obligatory tulip field picture that everybody has to get it they visit the Netherlands.

After visiting the farm, we had several hours at the hotel until dinner. I took a very necessary nap after my 5am wake up that morning, but I was ready to head off to dinner by four.

Dinner was at a traditional Dutch restaurant and it was wonderful. I had the kale stamppot with vegetarian schnitzel. Stamppot is a Dutch meal made of mashed potatoes and a vegetable, in this case kale. After dinner I explored the city with some friends, had some delicious stroopwafel, and bought some fun souvenirs. I’ll leave you with an image of me chowing down on stroopwafel, see you again tomorrow!