NL: New sales records and higher prices over 2017

Royal FloraHolland realised a €4.7 billion turnover last year, a 1.2% increase compared to 2016. Average prices went up 3.9% as compared to the year before, the units (flower stems and potted plants) traded by regular auction sales decreased by 1.8% to €11.7 billion. Products were supplied by 5,700 growers and bought by 2,500 customers.

At the Dutch auction, who presented its Annual Report 2017 just yesterday, good business is being done for the last consecutive years already. Although prices of cut flowers slightly fell (by 4.3%, from 0.23 to 0.22 euro per stem), tropical plants saw a sharp increase in value. Averaging 2.16 euro, as compared to 1.62 last year (an increase of 33.3%!), almost all subcategories showed spectacular growth.

Image taken from the Annual Report 2017

Slow but steady physical trade is being replaced by online. The first way, requiring the person buying to be physically present at the auction, decreased further last year by 3.5% to an amount of 2.050 billion euro. The latter, among Dutch traders known as KOA (kopen op afstand, 'buying from distance') increased by 5.1% to 2.673 billion euro.

In terms of organization and employment, the company is laying off people more and more. Over last year, the amount of fte decreased by 227 (or 13%) to 2.102. No wonder, one could say, since trade is more and more cloud-based and logistics is organized accordingly (read: smart and automated). As laid out in the visionary document Roadmap 2020, adapting the physical market place to the digital future is considered to be one of the main focal points. Rightly so, and last year finally brought the first serious strides in that direction. Floriday was launched and FloraXchange, a major player in the online plant trade, was incorporated.

CEO Steven van Schilfgaarde is happy with the figures and results laid out in the report. "Next to Floriday, improving day to day support for our members and improving internal logistics are core priorities. These goals are well on track with a solid financial basis we here present."