After the peak month of April, Royal FloraHolland processed even more flowers and plants in its logistics operations during May. Despite the large volumes, delivery reliability was high and there were almost no clock disruptions.
This year, Ascension Day occurred several weeks later than last year. Additionally, in 2025, Pentecost will fall later, in June. These shifts can make comparisons with previous periods slightly misleading. Nevertheless, Royal FloraHolland provides insights into the latest figures compared to last year and April.
© Royal FloraHolland
Higher than in April, lower than in 2024
The number of products traded via the clock amounted to over 501 million pieces, 7 million more than in April, but 1.5% lower than last year. The clock revenue in May amounted to nearly €218 million, €25 million higher than in April. Compared to May last year, the clock revenue decreased by 11.2%, despite the same number of auction days (21).
On Monday, May 5th, the Monday before Dutch Mother's Day, a record number of flower transactions were processed in Aalsmeer: 93,317 – numbers have never been this high before. The number of clock presale (KVV) transactions at Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk, and Rijnsburg was also very high that same day: 69,000. This is 7,000 more than a year ago.
Price formation was somewhat under pressure but was in line with the same period two years ago. The average price was slightly higher at €0.43 than in April (€0.39), but 9.8% lower than in May 2024. That Mother's Day in some countries fell in a different month last year may have affected pricing in certain product groups.
This went well
- A lot of help from the office with 143 peak support services
- High delivery reliability; 99.8% clock transactions without complaint
- Good availability of stack trolleys and CCs
- Auction end times achieved, as there were virtually no clock breakdowns/standstills.
- Many customers are now well used to multi-transaction auctioning (MTV)
This could be better
- Temporary issuance stop of two types of plant containers
- Forecasting work supply (especially on Mondays, May 5th and 19th) has proven difficult
What is the expectation for June?
Royal FloraHolland expects one more actual peak day, on Tuesday, June 10th, the day after Pentecost. On this day, Royal FloraHolland has already announced an early auction day due to the expected workload. They also face a challenge in the week around the NATO summit on June 24-25, which Royal FloraHolland has prepared for as best as possible. For Wednesday, June 25th, an extra early auction day has also been announced. For more information on this, visit the NATO summit page.
Source: Royal FloraHolland
