Today, we got to learn about the world-famous tulip industry in The Netherlands. It was so complex and so much larger than I could have imagined. We started off the day by visiting Royal Flora Holland, a company that stores masses of flowers, auctions them, and gets them to buyers quickly. Since flowers and valuable but perishable, it is important that the warehouse runs on time and efficiently. The warehouse was huge, spanning the area of over 200 football fields. Workers rode on carts transporting flowers, and there was great examples of engineering. The floors had rails which could open and close to allow the flowers to be organized on their own while other workers were running carts. There were also intricate “floating cart” systems that consisted of railways that moved the flowers up and out of the building in mass quantities. It shocked me to learn that all of the flowers in the building would be turned over in less than 48 hours, a testament to how efficient the warehouse was and how much experience Amsterdam companies have in this business.

After looking at the huge warehouse, we switched gears and travelled to a family-run smaller farm that grows tulip bulbs. In the warehouse, the flowers were being sold in masses to companies all over the world such as florists, or grocery stores, to be made into bouquets or arrangements. However, the farm we visited, De Tulperij, focused on growing and selling just the bulbs.

We took a walking tour of the farm, which was surprisingly green, and not covered with flowers, other than one red field of tulips that remained. The owner of the farm explained to us that the heads of the tulips are cut off so that all of the energy of the plant will go to the bulb, in order to create the biggest and best-selling bulbs. The process of cultivating these bulbs took a long time, with a whole year for tulips up to four years for hyacinth. This showed how much labor and energy has to go into each crop. It was nice to hear that the farm was still considering aspects of sustainability however. Irrigation is not needed for the crops because the Netherlands sits low to sea level, and ground water can be found just 65cm below the surface. Additionally, the rest of the plant that is not sold is used for composting. It was interesting to learn how “green auctions” used to occur in the field, and still occur for the bulbs of these crops, much like the auction culture seen at Royal Flora. I liked seeing this smaller family farm contrasted with the large company warehouse, because it showed the different levels of this industry. It also is a great example of the Netherlands collaborative culture when compared to the competitive nature of the US. Another part of being a smaller business was they had tourism and a small cafe as additional revenue, which was interesting to see from a business point of view (and the cheesecake was amazing too).

In terms of concept to customer, I loved seeing the behind the scenes of how mass amounts of these goods get supplied all around the world. I have always wondered how trade occurs on such large scale, and it was clear to see how much engineering and efficient business and deals are utilized to make this happen. The concept of selling flowers sounds simple, but on a global trade scale it is not. Especially with the short lifespan of flowers, it was amazing to see how fast decisions are made and how quickly they are transported from place to place.