AALSMEER, the NETHERLANDS

                                         Aalsmeer Flower Auction

 Having just returned from Holland I want to share an awesome experience. We were up early for a 6:30 AM departure for Aalsmeer. It was more than worthwhile as I’m not sure I can describe the world’s largest market place and the auction that starts each week day at 7AM.

Aalsmeer flower auction takes place in the auction hall covering about 160 acres!  Talk about big! In 1968 two auctions merged into Flora Holland, now  a co-op of 6000 growers. The auction of flowers has gone up and down over the years starting in 1911 until after WW II when it stabalized and grew. The auction moved to its present location, near the airport in 1972. More than 23,000 acres are devoted to growing and greenhouse production.

There are five auction halls with 13 clocks. Buyers sit in moderate sized amphitheaters, each with desk and computer. Flowers enter on the floor below on huge multi-tiered carts via automated railway. The content and number of flowers and the starting bid is posted on a large screen in the front along with a large clock.

In a Dutch auction the cost and numbers go backwards starting with the highest bid. It is lightning fast. Bidders bid by pressing a button linked to the main computer when the price of the flowers reaches what they are willing to pay. The first person who punches the electronic button sets the going price of the day and is obligated to buy the lot of flowers. The trick is to bid before the next fellow. There is only one bid: the highest. Every weekday 19 million flowers are auctioned. There are over 1000 buyers plus today remote electronic buyers.

Once purchased, the flowers are loaded onto airplanes and transported to florist shops across Europe and the U.S., usually to be sold the same day.

The visitors' gallery offers a great view of all that is going on. That gallery walkway is a mile long! On the floor below 1200 people are on foot, riding Sedway-type scooters, golf carts, bicycles as well as many walking pulling or pushing carts. There are also laden carts moving electronically on a single rail imbedded in the floor. The organization is phenomenal as everyone seemed to know what they were doing and where they were going. It was a mind boggling process.

It reminded me of a bee hive or an ant colony down there on the floor.

Activity starts to slow down by 9AM and when we left at 9:40 we wondered what all the people queued up to enter were going to see. We were happy to have arrived so early!

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