AMSTERDAM FLOWER MARKET SCRIPT Open: upbeat music, time-lapse shots Jose Hougee: Time is the worst enemy and that means everybody wants to speed it up as quickly as possible. Geert Hageman: I think on this moment ten years ago we are talking about half of the companies are still there. Because the bigger companies are getting bigger and the smaller companies disappear because its getting too expensive. FOR OVER A CENTURY, THE AALSMEER FLOWER AUCTION NEAR AMSTERDAM HAS BEEN AT THE HEART OF THE GLOBAL FLOWER TRADE. FROM THE DISTRIBUTION CENTER HERE, MORE THAN 21 MILLION FLOWERS ARE SHIPPED EVERY DAY, REPRESENTING SOME 60 PERCENT OF INTERNATIONAL WHOLESALE MARKET. Herman de Boon: Horticulture is very important for the dutch industry we are doing around i think its around 8 percent of our gdp for flowers its 5-6 percent so its a substantial part of our economy. // We are very well known about our flowers worldwide. everywhere I come they always talk about holland thats flowers. // We are certainly very famous by our dutch tulips. you see them everywhere. its a special product for the dutch. cheese and tulips. these things together more or less identify the dutch and the dutch economy. BUT IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS, A MASSIVE SHIFT HAS TAKEN PLACE IN THE WAY FLOWERS ARE BOUGHT AND SOLD AROUND THE GLOBE, CAUSING SOME TO SPECULATE THAT THE AUCTION’S TIME MAY SOON BE OVER. Geert Hageman: Maybe in 10 years if you are looking, maybe it is gone. BUYERS AND GROWERS ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY LARGE AND MORE OFTEN NOW DEAL WITH ONE ANOTHER DIRECTLY, THEREBY ELIMINATING THE NEED FOR AN AUCTION SYSTEM THAT SETS A DAILY PRICE. Geert Hageman: Five years ago we were doing maybe 1 or 2 percent direct. On this moment its already 30-40 percent going direct. That’s a big change of course. FURTHER, BY PLACING ORDERS DIRECTLY, BUYERS CAN REDUCE DELIVERY TIME AND BE BETTER PREPARED FOR SOME OF THE BIGGEST DAYS ON THE FLOWER CALENDAR. Geert Hageman: One of the most important days of our year is the 8th of march international womens day and on the international women day all the male people give the female people flowers .. so it could be that the men have to give maybe ten or twenty bunches of flowers away. A UNIQUE DUTCH INSTITUTION, THE AUCTION SYSTEM THAT IS DISAPPEARING HAS EXISTED SINCE FLOWER BUYING WENT FROM THE LOCAL PUB TO AN ORGANIZED INDUSTRY. Jose Hougee: The auction clock is a bidding system that normally when you go to an auction the price goes up and you can stop whenever you find a price too high. The price gets too high. Here we do it the other way around. if you follow the red dot you can see that it starts high runs backwards stops and comes up again. That is what we call aufmeine in Dutch. The clock is a full Euro. That means where the red dot stops the price is of one flower. BUT IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD, SPEED IS NOW KING, AND THAT HAS DRAMATICALLY CHANGED THE WAY THE AUCTION ITSELF WORKS. UNTIL LAST SUMMER, CARTS BRIMMING WITH FLOWERS WERE BROUGHT OUT ONTO THE FLOOR. BUYERS GOT TO SEE AND SMELL AND TOUCH THEM. NOW, FLOWERS ARE KEPT IN COLD STORAGE TO KEEP THEM FRESHER. MOST BUYERS ONLY SEE PHOTOS. Barry Wijkhuizen I’m buying roses im buying lilies I’m buying tulips // It’s not physically anymore. its different. i don’t like how it goes now. On the photos. You miss the feeling with the flowers. GERRIT VAN DIJK: (in trading office) This is now how we buy at VanDIJK. We sit here with buyers and we buy on the TV screen. It’s an exact copy of what you see on the old clock. It works the same way. THE AUCTION PROCESS ITSELF HAS ALSO INCREASINGLY MOVED TO THE INTERNET (show van djik room), FOR DECADES (old photos), THESE SEATS WERE PACKED WITH BUYERS DURING AUCTION. NOW ON A FRIDAY, TRADITIONALLY THE BUSIEST AUCTION DAY OF THE WEEK, THE ROOM CAN FEEL ALMOST EMPTY. Marco SCHOUTEN Five years ago it was more fun because everybody was sitting there it was friendship and now its complete silent. WHAT’S AT STAKE IS NOT JUST THE EXISTENCE OF A CENTURY-OLD, THOUGH PERHAPS QUAINT, INSTITUTION, BUT ALSO, SOME SAY, THE FUTURE OF THE DUTCH FLOWER INDUSTRY. LEX VAN HORSSEN, FLORAHOLLAND There is a threat we have to deal with it in what way in more detail we have to work that out but we acknowledge that there is something changing in the world and we have to act. BUT DUTCH EXPERTS INSIST THAT EVEN WITHOUT THE AUCTION CLOCK, CENTERS LIKE AALSMEER WILL REMAIN CRUCIAL TO LOGISTICS, FINANCIAL TRANSACTION AND KNOW-HOW. AND THAT IT WILL BE THE DUTCH WHO ULTIMATELY WILL REMAIN IN CONTROL. why dont someone take over our position. we keep the hub of trade in our fingers // so we are developing and thinning how are we going to control how are we going to orchestrate a network of hubs // so we also want to control the network