Did you ever wondered what kind of journey flowers are making before they are standing on your kitchentable? Let me take you on the yourney of the flowers!
First of all, every flowers and every vegetable starts just like us, like a little seed. There are companies like Monsanto, Takii Seeds and Syngenta who are breeding seeds. All kinds of flowers, vegetables and fruits are developed in this companies. These companies are all together located in the North of Holland in a place called 'Seed Valley'.
These breeding companies are developing the seeds for the growers all over the world. When you see a Sunflower field in France they are probably created in Holland. Just like the onion that you eat on you Big Mac, this onion is developed in Holland. The growers and farmers are buying seeds from these breeders, that makes them the beginning of the food chain and very powerfull. When you check Monsanto for example on the internet, you will see lots of protest and articles about the 'most powerfull company on the planet'. And i will not speak about the genetically modified products.
What happends next is that the farmers and growers need to sell there products. For example here in Holland the flowers are sold on the biggest flower auction in the world called Flora Holland. Here are more then 4000 suppliers who are offering there flowers to 2500 clients every day. With more then 12,5 billion flowers and plants sold every year is this the biggest flower market in the world. The system of buying is very simple. There is a clock on the auction were the grower offers his products. This clock rotate from the biggest amount to the highest bid. Every client can bid on the clock by pushing a button. The one who's clicks the first is the new owner of the flowers.
Mostly it are the export companies who are buying the flowers on the auction. When they had the highest bid they will try to sell the flowers to there clients. These clients are everywere in the world. In Holland is everything possible, also exporting flowers to all the countries in the world. The big export companies are selling there flowers to foreign wholesalers. These wholesalers are selling there flowers, local, to the florists. The most local flowershops are buying there products very early in the morning at the wholesaler.
Florist are combining all the flowers they can get to make you a wonderful bouquet of flowers just to make your wedding, birthday or other special day even more special. Flowers are always good for every ocassion. But they made a long journey.