Venturing beyond the confines of Amsterdam proper, we started the day early with a drive out to the sprawling green countryside of North Holland. Our first stop for the day was at Royal FloraHolland, a cooperative and flower auction serving local and international floriculturists alike. After a brief tour of their main warehouse we hit the road again travelling to De Tulperij, a multigenerational tulip and flower farm in Voorhout, South Holland. There, we got the chance to learn about the Netherland’s bulb industry and the challenges non-corporate entities must surmount to keep their business and livelihood afloat.

Waking just past dawn we made for our transport to the FloraHolland auction at 6:00. After a brief ride we arrived at the gargantuan warehouse, spanning some 518,000 square meters in the municipality of Aalsmeer, just Southwest of Amsterdam. Embarking on a self-guided tour of their facilities we were able to take a look at the complex inner workings of the beast as the morning auctions ran. Tulips, hyacinths, chrysanthemums, and more were packaged neatly in bundles and boxes across racks bound for transport both domestic and abroad. Packed tightly on assorted carrier racks thousands of flowers would flow into zones called ‘Buffers’ via rail networks ingrained in the facility’s floor. These modular racks would then be picked up one at a time by staff on motorized trolleys, depositing the bulk flowers in painted zones to be transferred to outbound racks for further transport. Customers’ sales were moved from rack to rack before yet another trolley would come and pick up the order, driving the load to a further part of the warehouse to be lifted and ported across the highway for the final leg of transport. With the rush of the train-like processions of product, the abundance of staff flying past on bikes and trolleys, and the general movement of the floor, FloraHolland appeared a city in all but name.

The technology and infrastructure require to efficiently move these products was astounding. Immediately identifiable, the modular structure of the carrier racks allowed them to function both individually alongside the flower trolleys and in unison, linked together in long trains of product. This feature granted a great deal of versatility, allowing the system to both handle larger bulk loads in the input while leaving room for specific sorting and packing required for the correct products to reach the customer at the output. With the low shelf life of organic items, especially so with flowers, having a fast turnaround in transit is necessary to provide the final customer with a live and satisfactory product. This demand incurs the use of further infrastructure, such as the flower lifts, to separate outbound orders from the line and clear up floor space below. Once packed and arranged as ordered racks would be placed in a lift opposed to additional ground transport, reducing congestion on the warehouse floor and directly delivering the flowers to their external connections on the outside of the facility. The same lift would return the empty racks, depositing them for a trolley to pick up in a long train, then returning them to a storage section to be reused, completing a full loop through the system.

Moving from supplier to producer, we ended the day at De Tulperij, touring the fields and getting to know the ins and outs of the bulb industry here in the Netherlands. As an independent, family-owned business, De Tulperij relies heavily on their yearly harvest of tulip bulbs. Collected only once annually, this leaves the farm without revenue for large portion of the year. To supplement this De Tulperij branched into other products such as daffodils and hyacinths, with the added benefit of maintaining sustainable agriculture by promoting soil health through crop rotations. Opening up to tourists as well, the farm continues to pull in revenue from visitors between field tours, an onsite cafe, and shop for flower related accoutrements. While not as profitable as the primary business, these income streams help supplement the business in the down season as well as providing a small cushion should a particular year’s crop fail or perform poorly. While a major international cooperative such as FloraHolland has multiple partners and clients it can rely on, seeing the reliance of small business on its individual performance put into perspective not only the difference in the different ends of the supply chain but also the degree to which scale can affect the way a company conducts itself.

Sustainable practice isn’t just limited to agricultural work, however, and on the horizon we will get a glance into its intersection with more traditional industry. Tomorrow we are off to Nouryon, both a producer and distributor of chemicals and chemical based products. Not typically thought of as a sustainable or environmentally friendly sector, it will be interesting to see how the minds behind Nouryon approach and integrate the topic into their production processes.

– Duncan Dockstader