Herman de Boon

We visited Horti Fair again for its final day Friday. But before hitting the trade show floor, I was fortunate to sit in on a roundtable discussion at the RAI Congress Center with Herman de Boon, who’s chairman of both the Dutch Wholesale and International Trade Federation and the Dutch Flower Wholesale Association.

De Boon spent much of the hour discussing the Dutch Flower Auction. He also discussed recent changes The Netherlands has experienced in the supply chain.

“Some growers have gone their own way,” de Boon says, meaning away from the flower auction system. “Now, they are completely dependent on the traders with whom they work.”

The auction system, de Boon says, is successful only if all growers participate. If growers decide to go around the clock, then all growers are less competitive. And the more growers go their own way, the less competitive growers will get.

Still, the fact growers can participate in the auction system from the comfort of their homes or offices is attractive to those who currently participate and to those who may be leaning elsewhere in the future.

“It’s clear we have digitalized the auction clock, which means it’s possible everywhere in the world to buy directly on the Dutch auction system,” de Boon says. “If you combine this with our import/export orientation, you have a nice place where everyone can find everything they want in the flower business.”

Vegetables are a different story. Earlier in the week, I visited The Greenery, a major cooperative of 1,250 fruit and vegetable growers. The Greenery, de Boon says, has hurt the flower auction and competition because in some cases, growers are becoming wholesalers, wholesalers are becoming growers and some breeders are even going around the whole supply chain to reach the retailer directly.

“Retailers put a lot of pressure on the whole chain to get vegetables to them directly and not with the auction,” de Boon says.

As far as production goes, de Boon has a few ideas on how growers can reduce their carbon footprint in the future. His ideas are:

• Breed varieties that require less energy
• Ship product with biofuels
• Look for energy savings at every point in the supply chain

Want more from the FloraHolland Trade Fair, the growing exhibition that takes place in Aalsmeer? Check out another slideshow with photos here.

Once product is bid on in an auction room, it is
carted back into a warehouse area where it's tagged
and sorted by purchaser. Product is later moved into a packing area,
most of which leaves The Netherlands entirely.

We arrived at FloraHolland in Aalsmeer for the Dutch Flower Auction at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, and the show was nearly over by the time we made our way to the auction rooms around 8. But in order to ensure product purchased is delivered to the correct destination -- which may be Asia, North America or elsewhere in Europe -- buyers for wholesalers and retailers start their days closer to 4 or 5 a.m.

The auction hasn't changed much over the years. Thousands of growers deliver product daily to the auction between 4 p.m. the day before and 4 a.m. the day of the auction. Product is then stored in massive warehouses, where buyers are free to view product before making bids later that morning. Once product is purchased, it's driven to individual purchaser locations before being packed and shipped away to its destination.

When we arrived Thursday, one auction room was nearly full of buyers and a second was just emptying. Fewer buyers bid from the auction rooms today because they can bid on the Internet. In fact, nearly 60 percent of all product is auctioned off the Internet. An even more astounding 85 percent of the product is exported from The Netherlands by midnight.

The auction is still effective for Dutch growers today because it keeps their prices competitive. If anything, because the overwhelming majority of product is being exported, an auction system today is probably more competitive because buyers for wholesalers and retailers represent a variety of different countries with a variety of different markets.

Two other interesting aspects of the flower auction were a product testing center where the shelf life of cut flowers is regularly examined and a mock garden center of sorts buyers can visit to view product available in the auction. The garden center isn't a retail store, but rather a facility where buyers can determine which products are available from growers. Product is simply presented in a retail-like manner.

The "auction room of the future" is also worth noting. Although the majority of buyers bid on the Internet, the second of two auction rooms I observed had only a few buyers in it. This auction room was called the "auction room of the future," meaning buyers bid based on photographs rather than having live product carted into the auction room each day. The buyers tend to be quite familiar with the product they're purchasing, so there's little reason to check the quality early each morning or in the auction room. In fact, when I visited an empty FloraHolland on Sunday, I was told more growers today are not viewing product in warehouses before making bids each day. The buyers trust the quality they're purchasing, and so the process is becoming more digital.

To view a slideshow of photographs from my visit to the Dutch Flower Auction, click here.

Narcissus bulbs in egg hatchlings. View a
slideshow with more potted bulb ideas here.

Orchids. Cut flowers. Bulbs.

I only spent 25 minutes Thursday at the FloraHolland Trade Fair, but I raced the exhibition floor to see as much as I could. The majority of the product I saw was indeed orchids, cut flowers and bulbs, a somewhat representative reflection of the product Dutch greenhouse growers are producing.

I keep hearing 60 percent of the greenhouse product grown here is cut flowers while the other 40 percent is potted plants. It's amazing the foci can be so narrow, but there are niches within both categories that allow Dutch growers to succeed. Plus, the Dutch are getting creative merchandising and promoting their plants.

Take bulbs, for example: They're often packaged in bags or boxes for consumers, but I stumbled across a few new creative potted bulb ideas like the narcissus bulbs in egg hatchlings pictured.

Want more ideas? View a slideshow of photos with more creative potted bulb ideas, click here.

Grotop's rock wool serves Tomato World
as the growing media, but it is later recycled and
converted into bricks.

You can't venture more than a few hundred yards without encountering a sustainable concept in Amsterdam and its surrounding areas. Windmills and wind turbines are everywhere, bicycles outnumber people and, as a South African journalist joked today, the sheep are the lawn mowers here.

Sustainable products have made their way into the greenhouse, as well. The one that struck me most Wednesday was a fibrous material called Rockwool that Tomato World uses as its growing media. A company called Grotop manufactures the Rockwool, which Tomato World uses for all tomatoes on site.

Once Rockwool has run its course, it is shredded and stored for six weeks before being converted into brick. The plastic residue is also recycled for synthetics companies, making the media 100 percent recylable.

Tomato World's primary purpose is to
share tomato growing techniques
with growers. More than 50 tomato
varieties are grown at Tomato World.

The only cut flowers and potted plants I saw Wednesday were the ones beautifying the hotel and restaurants I visited, but that's because my day was spent visiting two companies highly focused on vegetables: (1) Tomato World, a joint effort of nearly 40 companies that's created a platform for cooperation, education and knowledge exchange in the greenhouse; and (2) The Greenery, a cooperative that represents 1,250 growers from numerous countries and primarily supplies the United Kingdom with fresh fruits and vegetables.

I didn't take away any floriculture-specific ideas, but a couple of general concepts and ideas I picked up are worth knowing.

One thing that impressed me about both Tomato World and The Greenery is the willingness of the people involved to collaborate. Dutch tomato growers are facing some of the same problems growers are facing in the United States: Cheap, poor-quality product is hitting the market, and consumers are buying based on what's cheap rather than what's quality. Dutch growers could lower their prices to remain competitive, but quality is such a high standard here that most growers won't lower costs for the sake of short-term competition. Growers are holding their ground with the belief that quality will be the high standard following the recession rather than cost, and I give them credit sticking their ground.

A spokesperson for The Greenery, for example, mentioned how a few growers in The Netherlands and other countries are willing to lower prices to involve themselves with the cooperative. The Greenery provides vegetables to supermarket chains throughout Europe, North America and the Far East, and growers not involved with the cooperative want in on the action. The spokesperson, however, said The Greenery puts its Dutch growers first, and it puts Dutch growers who produce quality product at the front of the line. The Greenery realizes redistributing cheap product is one route it could go, but loyalty, tradition and quality are three standards by which the cooperative stands.

Where do you stand in the quality versus price debate?

Hortiquip earned Horti Fair's 2009 Innovation
Award in the Horti Tech category for its staking
machine that uses triangle laser technology.

Labor is a killer, right? It might even be the biggest issue your greenhouse operation deals with. But if you're a Phalaenopsis orchid grower, a Dutch company called Hortiquip has designed a big-time labor-saving machine for you.

The machine is actually a staking machine, and it uses laser technology to position stakes to support plants, including the automatic attachment of clips. You have to see it to be totally wowed by its capabilities, and I'll post video on GreenhouseGrower.com/GGTV in the coming weeks featuring Remco Hmmerlaan, one of the staking machine's developers, giving a demonstration.

For the time being, imagine this: You've just potted your orchids with a growing media. Perhaps you prefer a media like bark that's thick, jagged and unwilling to take stakes from greenhouse workers on a line without a fight. The staking machine simplifies the process, moving potted orchids along a conveyor line to a point where pots are rotated 360 degrees. A computer takes a laser scan of the pot and determines the best location for stakes. The technology is so advanced that the machine can pinpoint the best staking location even if less than an inch of pot space is available for stakes.

Hmmerlaan says Hortiquip has done research that indicates growers will save 60 to 70 percent on labor.

I personally thought the staking machine was the coolest thing I saw Tuesday. The jury choosing awards for the Horti Fair innovation awards were also impressed with the machine, awarding Hortiquip the Horti Fair Innovation Award in the Horti Tech category for 2009.

Just think of the time, energy and effort wasted inserting stakes into Phalaenopsis orchid pots. It's a simple task, yes, but a time-staking one. And greenhouse workers are unlikely to stake all pots equally because the bark or stone media growers use presents different challenges from pot to pot.

The machine solves those issues, though, ensuring stakes are placed firmly and squarely into pots. The only job left for workers is clipping stakes to orchid stems. And that's a task one greenhouse worker can handle on his or her own.

For more information on Hortiquip, visit its website at Hortiquip.nl. Most of the site is presented in Dutch, but it may give you a better idea about the product.

Endon's Aroen Bechan

The exhibitor count at this year's Horti Fair is down dramatically from 2008. One exhibitor I spoke with mentioned the number of exhibit halls being used is down from 11 in 2008 to seven this year. Still, if horticulture is your field, Horti Fair is the place to be.

I spent the day visiting as many of the exhibit halls as I could, but the majority of my time was spent in Horti Fair's House of Technology. Willem van der Loo, Horti Fair managing director, piqued my interest when he spoke of growers making an additional living producing and selling electricity. I was curious how growers were producing electricity and how many of them were selling it.

Aroen Bechan, a representative from a Dutch electric company called Endon that helps growers sell electricity, offered me some answers. Bechan explained how many Dutch growers have turned to combined heat and power (CHP), also known as cogeneration or generating power and thermal energy from a single fuel source.

"It's a plant that also uses natural gas but produces half the amount of heat," Bechan says. "This means that you must use twice the amount of gas to make the same amount of heat. But a generator produces up to 43 percent of electricity. This makes the total return 93 percent for each cubic meter of gas. The benefits for the electricity are high enough to compensate the additional gas and investment and also covers a reduction compared to use gas in a boiler."

Van der Loo views the CHP usage as one of the most impressive technological Dutch developments growers are using.

“Technical solutions, for instance, cut costs in power use," van der Loo says. "There are growers who find a solution doing just that, and they grow their own power. In some circumstances, there are growers who sell the power back to the public network or to the power producers. There are days in the year where growers earn more by selling electricity than effectively selling cucumbers or paprikash.

"In these difficult economic times, if you are ahead in your technical developments and automation, you’ll probably have a better chance to survive."

I'm in The Netherlands because the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of The Netherlands invited me to its Opinion Makers program. The program brings horticultural and agricultural magazine editors from around the world together, and it offers them the chance to learn the latest innovations and technologies the Dutch are employing in various trades. Much of the program is focused on Dutch commercial greenhouse floriculture, but the program applies to agriculture production, as well.

This year, the Dutch ministry invited about 20 editors from a dozen or so countries to Amsterdam. I was fortunate today to meet horticulture/agriculture magazine editors from China, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, Romania, South Africa -- and I'm probably forgetting a few others. It's interesting learning about their trades. Most are not as focused on commercial greenhouse floriculture as I am with my craft, but the other magazine editors all at least seem interested in floriculture for their respective countries.

The majority of editors seemed more curious about the state of the commercial greenhouse floriculture market in the United States, though. After editors introduced themselves this morning and revealed which country they were from, most attendees seemed excited and fascinated that I was there representing the United States. The editors wanted to pick my brain for industry ideas and solutions. Most of all, they wanted a report on the current market conditions in the United States.

Until this program, I had never traveled overseas. Nor had I participated in a program with such a variety of magazine editors. But the interest they showed in the U.S. serves as a reminder that our industry in the U.S. is looked to as a model. The Netherlands arguably sets standards for quality production, but the U.S. is by far the top floriculture and agriculture exporter in the world. Makes me wonder what potential is out there for additional breeder-grower partnerships between the U.S. and other countries, especially if magazine editors in other countries are expressing an interest in how things are going for us.

I was told about 500 houseboats occupy Amsterdam's
canals.The canal boat tour guide said some
houseboats cost 300,000 Euros to own.

Boy, is Amsterdam busy!

After I arrived early Saturday morning in Amsterdam, I wandered around the city as much as my aching feet would allow me. What startled me most about Amsterdam was the traffic. Not the automobile traffic (although I've found that's horrendous, too), but the foot, bicycle, bus and train traffic that whizzes by you in every direction. You can't walk two feet in Amsterdam without looking both ways. If you don't, a Moped rider or a pack of bicyclists is bound to mow you down.

Fortunately, I didn't do much traveling on foot Monday in Amsterdam. I was, however, fortunate to take an hour-long canal boat ride through the city. I've posted a few photos from the canal boat ride, and you can click here to see them. The two things I learned about canal boat navigation are:

-Don't put your canal in a situation where you need to go in reverse! Other canal boat captains may get irritated, and you may cause a traffic jam.
-If you need to turn around, don't attempt a U-Turn. You may wind up wedging your boat between the canal walls!

It was fascinating to see some of the city's oldest buildings teetering and tottering in their place, as well. Apparently, the base of some buildings is purely sand and not concrete enough after all these centuries to withstand the weight of some buildings. Some buildings actually lean forward, appearing as if they may topple into canals. Other buildings seem to be standing OK, but it's obvious which buildings have foundation problems and which buildings don't.

The garden center concept. Van den Berg says Dutch garden centers are more "business oriented" today than they have been, and there's a push for back-to-basics concepts that hook consumers.

The supermarket concept

As I mentioned in an earlier post featuring Zabo Plants' Frits Kneppers, a Dutch grower's success is based on quality whereas an American grower's success is often based on the ability to build a marketing program or promotion for products. Quality is still very important in the U.S., but Kneppers says it is not as vital to consumer sales as it is in The Netherlands.

So because quality has always been the No. 1 factor in whether Dutch consumers buy plants or not, growers have historically spent less time working on marketing or merchandising and more time growing. But times are changing in The Netherlands. Breeders, growers and retailers see the potential for increased sales with an embrace of merchandising, and those who visit the FloraHolland Trade Fair in Aalsmeer later this week will see three creative merchandising concepts first hand.

FloraHolland chose world-class floral designer Doriene van den Berg to create three concepts -- one for Dutch garden centers, a second for supermarkets and a third for high-end floral shops -- and her exhibits were in the early building stages during my visit to FloraHolland on Sunday afternoon. Each concept is comparable to the ones you typically see in the United States -- "back to basics" for the garden center, "flowers are fun" for the supermarket, etc. -- but van den Berg emphasizes the concepts are not marketing programs into which retailers would normally buy. They're simply ideas retailers can take away and apply at their own stores or shops.

"FloraHolland wants to sell concepts," van den Berg says. "Emotion is much more important now. When a customer has a good feeling, they're more likely to buy."

Peter van der Vooit, FlorConcepting coordinator for the FloraHolland Trade Fair, agrees merchandising is becoming more important in The Netherlands.

"We want to inspire our customers to be creative so they show up at the shop," van der Vooit says. "We think it's necessary for professionals to have knowledge about these concepts. The emotion of product is not enough anymore, and that's why we have these examples of shops for growers and others to see here at the trade fair"

To view a photo slideshow of van den Berg's other concepts, click here.

One of the main functions of the Zabo Plants facility I visited is quality control, and it checks quality with its own lily trials. Zabo Plants now supplies more than 400 lily varieties, and part of Frits Kneppers' job is examining how the different varieties compare to each other.

"You can see there are better bulbs, better methods, better transplants," Kneppers says. "We started these kinds of [trials] to see how long we could store varieties."

Kneppers says nearly 60 percent of Zabo's business is the Lily Looks program. Zabo is capable of producing 500 boxes of lily bulbs per hour because of its investment in automation. Because it's capable of producing so many boxes, Zabo fills its cold storage warehouses fairly quickly. But Zabo empties those warehouses in about one week, and then it begins packaging a new harvest of bulbs. The process is pretty cyclical.

Zabo is capable of filling last-minute orders, but Kneppers may not always have the specific bulb variety available if customers request bulbs last minute.

"Now, we tell customers we don't have it but we have this," he says. "People are becoming more quality conscious, so we have more cooperation between us and our customers."

 To view photos from Zabo Plants, check out the slideshow below.

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Zabo Plants greenhouse, Korte Belkmerweg 1-A, The Netherlands

Zabo Plants' Frits Kneppers

Lily bulb supplier Zabo Plants was the first scheduled stop of my visit to The Netherlands. I sat down with Zabo's Frits Kneppers, who discussed lily bulb production, challenges bulb growers are facing today and a recent shift in European growers wanting to exhibit at the FloraHolland Trade Fair in Aalsmeer as opposed to the Horti Fair in Amsterdam. Those were all interesting conversations and I'll get to some of them in later blog posts, but the conversation with Kneppers that struck me most was our conversation about the state of potted lilies in the United States.

Zabo's lily supply, of course, isn't limited to Dutch or other European growers. Zabo has a presence at U.S. box stores like Walmart and Home Depot with its Lily Looks potted lily program that includes about 17 lilies. When Zabo approached Walmart about a potted lily program five years ago, Kneppers says Walmart was on the verge of venturing out of the potted lily business altogether. The quality, Kneppers says, simply wasn't being provided, and potted lily growers weren't providing enough lilies when they were needed most.

But right around the time Walmart was considering dropping potted lilies, Kneppers says Zabo convinced growers to try its potted lilies after three university trials proved successful. The quality of potted lilies being produced then slowly improved at the box stores, and the U.S. growers growing potted lilies are now providing enough for the box stores' targeted sales window.

Still, Kneppers sees room for improvements in the U.S. potted lily market.

"The quality of pot lilies is still much more developed in other countries," he says. "When I drive along the West Coast (of the U.S.), I see the size of the houses and wonder what is being done. Growers are providing a cheap lily, and there is a market right there for higher-priced lilies if quality is improved."

And until consumers realize potted lily quality has more room for improvement, Kneppers says they'll continue to buy whatever growers provide at lower prices. The obvious way to improve quality is to decrease production. Right now, he believes U.S. growers put too much emphasis on producing as much as possible. If growers focused on growing less but better quality products, they would have more success.

At least that's Kneppers belief and recommendation.

"Give your lilies a little more space to grow, and you'll produce more quality," Kneppers says. "When you charge 2 or 3 cents more per lily, that's a 10 to 15 percent improvement per lily. Growers must not consider that in their calculations. Twenty or 30 percent less production should result in savings. A very fast calculation is not a good thing for the U.S. Growers should be much more quality conscious."

The responsibility of quality isn't only on growers, though. It's more important than ever that suppliers like Zabo make color selections consumers want. It's also the supplier's job to create programs consumers can get excited about, but it's even more important for suppliers to update programs with new introductions so consumers come back for more.

Zabo will be keeping its Lily Looks program fresh in the coming years with the introduction of double lilies Kneppers hopes to introduce to the industry next year. Oriental lilies are on the way, as well.

Ideally, Kneppers says U.S. potted lily growers would better be served if their sales window was wider. Potted lilies are typically sold in the U.S. between April and June, but they're available in The Netherlands well into summer. Perhaps improved or enhanced programs that emphasize potted lilies throughout summer could extend that sales window? Kneppers says programs need to improve at supermarket chains. There's too much potential with potted lilies not to improve them, he says.

"Even if you have poor quality in the U.S., you can survive because of your marketing strategy," Kneppers says. "The U.S. is more marketing driven. I like the American market because companies can make easy changes. Here, everything is quality."

Stay tuned for coverage of Horti Fair and other commercial greenhouse floriculture events taking place the week of October 11 in The Netherlands. Associate Editor Kevin Yanik will be attending the 2009 Horti Fair trade show in Amsterdam, checking out Tomato World in Honselersdijk and visiting FresQ, a distribution and packaging center that represents 75 grower members.

Kevin will also pay visits to the Aalsmeer Flower Auction and the RAI Congress Center, and he’ll blog about his other adventures from The Netherlands.