Matthe Schouten, father of Christel and Sebastian, who are sitting next to him.
Sebastian Schouten of Schouten produces tulips in a 7000m2 greenhouse in Lierstranda, Norway. Annually, they grow 20 million tulips that are supplied all over the country and Christmas is one of his most important holidays of the year.
Red tulips. Variety name: Ben Van Zanten
Nr 1 Christmas flower
Throughout the year, roses are the most important flowers, followed by tulips. However, during Christmas, the tulips are. "For Christmas, one can get red tulips more easily than red roses. On top of that, because there are less red roses available, they are often more expensive compared to the rest of the year", says Schouten. "And the same counts for holidays like Easter, when there is a high demand for yellow flowers."
The greenhouse of Schouten. Next to flowers, they also grow lilies in the greenhouse.
Locally grown
The majority, of the tulips sold in Norway are grown in Norway. "Around 75 percent of the tulips are grown in Norway and the remaining is imported from the Netherlands." The Netherlands is a well known country for tulips, so, what is the reason for this high local production? The most obvious reason is the Norwegian import tax regulations on imported flowers, however, according to Schouten this is not the only and most important reason. "The most important reason is that people value locally grown flowers. When looking at our neighbour countries Finland and Sweden, that are within the European Union and therefore have a free movement of goods, we see a high demand for locally grown flowers too."
Tulips in the greenhouse
Demand
The demand for tulips for this year's Christmas is more or less the same compared to last year. "Currently, we are in the middle of the busiest days of the year and the demand for red tulips is high."
For more information
Schouten
Sebastian Schouten
Email: sebastian@schouten.no
www.schouten.no