The flower auction in Aalsmeer is the largest in the world, operated by FloraHolland, the market leader and key player in the international floriculture sector. It is the size of 36 football fields and has five auction rooms, where buyers from all over Europe would come to bid for the wide range of flowers and plants available there.
Every day in the evening, thousands of trolleys of flowers and plants from all over the world would arrive at the auction. There, the products would be kept in refrigerated areas overnight. The auction quality inspectors would perform random quality controls on the flowers and plants and would grade them according to their quality. At 6:00am every day, thousands of buyers, ranging from a street corner stand to an export company, would attend the auction to bid for the flowers and plants, whereby the sale would go to the highest bidder. By 11:00am, the auction is over and the buyers would receive their flowers and plants on the same day or on the next day for other parts of the world. Every year, FloraHolland trades over 12 billion flowers and plants, with an annual turnover of €4 billion.
Meanwhile, Horti Fair 2008 was held in Amsterdam from 14 to 17 October 2008. Over 900 businesses from 49 countries took part in the Fair, attracting 47,730 horticultural professionals. The Fair this year focused on new products and energy, with the theme of 'Growing Sustainably'. The horticulture-wide trade exhibition offers a complete overview of up-to-the-minute and new developments in international horticulture and provides the platform to reinforce contacts, do business and gain insight into the latest technology in horticulture.
