The indomitable Dutch

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands— We complain that we’re only a small nation – but once a handful of Dutchmen parlayed the profit motive into a vast empire, six times our size; today 14 million Dutchmen beat the gas shortage by pedaling to school or work on 8.5 million bicycles, earn $240M a year by exporting 500 varieties of tulips and other flowers, and keep a land where even the airport is 12-feet below sea level from getting wet.

Whenever the streets of Manila get flooded in a rainstorm or heavy downpour, I think of the Dutch. Whenever I spot a long queue of cars and jeepneys lining up at gasoline station pumps, I am reminded that less than 14 million Dutch own 8.5 million bicycles and use them.

Everybody on bicycle

Can you imagine how much gasoline is saved by the 500,000 Dutch who pedal to school, to work, and to play daily? Collectively these fietsers (as cyclist are called in Holland) rack up four billion miles each year as they breeze along on 4,000 cycle-paths, specially paved for them by the government. In fact, in 80 different cities throughout the Netherlands, the Dutch Railways have installed 3,500 new bicycles at their stations for the benefit of tourists and adventurous commuters.

Intriguingly enough, the Dutch port of Rotterdam (the world’s busiest, outpacing New York, London and Antwerp) “imports” about 120 million tons of crude oil yearly. These figures are deceptive. Around 25 million tons of this crude is re-exported by sea to other destinations. A huge chunk of the remainder is refined in nearby refineries and transshipped to other European countries. It is a fact that 40 percent of all transport in the European Common Market must go through the Dutch. The Dutch manage to make a profit out of (almost) everything.

Flying flowers all over the world

The International Horticultural Fair attracts more than 900 exhibitors from 50 countries and about 55,000 visitors who are looking for new plants and flowers in wholesale quantities. Among the major presentors who advertise their forthcoming exhibitions, are Florida’s Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (Jan. 21 to 23, 2015), Italian Padova Fiere Florshow a Verona Mercato (Feb. 25 to 27, 2015), Tokyo International Flower Expo (October 2015), and Ratchaphrueck International Horticulture Expo (happening early December to commemorate the King’s birthday).

In 2004, Rai Convention Hall is the venue for the horticultural event. It covers an area equivalent to one-third of a football field. It also exhibited the latest “robotic” horticulture machines in food crops and flower productions. These included computerized seeders, fertilizers, greenhouses, etc. The floriculture sections had four designated halls. Breakfast for breeders, growers, packers and traders were held regularly. Moreover, the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce continued matchmaking programs between European and Latin American companies in agri-business.

Of these flowers and plants auctioned daily, roughly 85 percent are exported on the same day with almost 10 percent going to the United States. Most of them remain within a radius of 1,500 kilometers – Germany, England, Italy, Spain, Russia, and Eastern Europe. Flowers and plants from abroad are also auctioned here, sometimes from Dutch growers who have emigrated. Principal import countries include Israel Kenya, and Uganda, as well as France and Denmark.

Historical background

The growers who auctioned their flowers to a group of merchants in coffee shops in Aalsmeer almost a hundred years ago could never have suspected that they were forming the basis for an international business of billions. The major auction houses are Bloemenveiling and Blumex. Their secret is to give the best possible price for quality flowers and plants, as well as to have the latest hybrid ornamental plants.

Since 1972, the auction has been located at Aalsmeer, an hour away from Schiphol airport. In spring, the nursery greenhouses, which are all over this town is framed by huge patch works of brightly colored tulip fields. The growers formed cooperatives, which have guaranteed the large volume demanded by strong supply market.

Everyday, roughly 7,000 growers provide an auction house in Aalsmeer with an international range of products. Not only Dutch growers, but also of Spain, France, Italy, Germany, as well as the Middle East countries, bring their flowers and plants to Aalsmeer, too. Fully automated with the right temperature, fertilized water, and lighting, the Aalsmeer greenhouses cover surface areas of several hectares or even dozens of hectares. But, there are smaller, traditional nurseries, which grow flowers and plants that do not appear in the auction in large quantities.

For example, today, Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer has over 3,300 members, who elect a board and determine the policy together. Members, who are themselves growers, sell all their flowers and plants through Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer.

Selling flowers and plants by auction

At the Horti Fair, I met Gerben Planken of the sales department of the large Blumex flower import/export company, whose family has been in the wholesale flower business for years. He recalls that from childhood he used to accompany his father as early as 5:30 in the morning to the Blumex auction house of Aslsmeer. They would bicycle around the flower-filled chiller room, big as an airplane hangar, to choose the flowers by wholesale bidding, which starts at 8 a.m. They have a wide choice of ornamentals, many of them flown in the night before from Europe, South America and Asia.

Everyday, over 19 million cut flowers and two million plants are processed. Within a few hours after purchase, the flowers and plants are delivered. Then, huge container vans per auction house take them with clock precision straight to the airport before noon. Thus, speed is important when splitting up and delivering flowers and plants. The flowers and plants are fresh when they arrive at the auction, and it is important that they remain so on their route to the customer. The earlier they are with the buyer, the faster he can process the flowers and plants to transport them to his customers under optimal conditions. This goes on the day and night to meet the business hours of the two hemispheres of the world.

The grower, specialist par excellence

Like growers, exporters and wholesalers can be small or very large. Their customers may vary from a small flower stallholder in the heart of London to a supermarket chain in Germany, a wholesalers’ market in Paris, a garden center in Moscow, or a chic specialty shop in Tokyo. However, they all have one thing in common: They sell flowers and plants from Aalsmeer.

Electronic data travel faster than flowers and plants. Time is money, and the sooner you know what’s coming, the better. Thus, at the moment that the grower packs the flowers or the plants for transport, the auction already knows what to expect, as well as its price because as majority of the growers use the so-called Electronic Delivery Form, which is sent via the Internet. On the basis of the information, the auction, plans its processes and keeps its buyer informed, as well as monitor its quality of information.

Growers are cultivation specialists par excellence. Almost 24 hours a day, they are busy growing flowers and plants that consumers are happy to buy. They make sure they have the right varieties and colors, as well as the best possible quality, “because the greater the demand, the higher the price.”

The consumer is hungry for whatever is new – a new variety or a different color or something very exotic or totally unknown. With Fleur Primeur (for flowers) and Plant Primeurs (for plants), the auction showed new products to buyers and their customers. The new Pepperomia Caperata has wrinkled heart shaped leaves with four-inch tubular flowers with branching raceme. Even the new hybrid of Kalanchoe has dangling fuchsia colored bells. Fleur Primeurs and Plant Primeurs also meet stringent requirements regarding quality and vase life. Aalsmeer is where the entire international range of flowers and plants come together with no fewer than 12,000 varieties of flowers and plants available. Thus, this makes it possible for a grower to concentrate on one product.

‘God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland’

Contrary to common misconception, the Dutch didn’t invent the windmill in the 20th century BC, when Emperor Hammurabi of Babylon envisioned the widespread use of windmills for irrigation.

Nevertheless, it took the Dutch to invoke the windmill on a major scale. Eventually, almost 10,000 windmills lined the dikes and canals of the Netherlands, equipped with 30 to 50 foot long sails, not only pumping thousands of gallons of water back into the sea without stopping, but operating drainage, millstones to grind grain, lumber saws and even rag choppers to make paper. In the 14th century there was even a database as to “who owned the air the mills used.” Pope Celestine III quickly laid claim to the wind, which he said belonged to the Church.

Observing how dry land had been salvaged from the ocean-bed, the philosopher Rene Descartes was moved to exclaim: “God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland.”