NL: Growers respond to All Saints' Day
Jeroen Ammerlaan runs the location in Berkel en Rodenrijs, the Netherlands. He has noticed a strong increase in orders in the run up to this important day for Southern Europe. Italy is a major market for Fiore Anthuriums. Spain and Portugal are also requesting many cut-anthuriums. Traditionally, consumers place cut-anthuriums on graves. The first orders were already heading to southern Italy around October 18.
Very important period
Jeroen explained, "For cut-anthuriums, All Saints' Day is what Valentine's Day is for red roses. It is a very important period for us and our customers. In this period we have to pull out all the stops at work to meet the demand for our flowers as best as possible. Manual labour is often the limiting factor here. Our experienced staff put in long hours in this period. The prices in this period are considerably higher than in the rest of the year."
More cut-anthuriums to Italy
Figures from the retail matrix of Royal FloraHolland (from 2014-2016) revealed that 18 percent of the cut-anthuriums go to Italy in weeks 40 to 43. Larger numbers also go to France (17 percent) and Germany (16 percent) than in 'normal weeks' without holidays.
Popular holiday
All Saints' Day is a national holiday in many countries, including Andorra, Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Austria, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and parts of Germany and Switzerland. This Catholic holiday is growing in popularity. This year, in the Marais district of Paris, an event is being organised on Wednesday, November 1, to honour the dead in a more modern way with music and the deceased's favourite flowers.
Source: Royal FloraHolland