Koninklijke Coöperatieve Bloemenveiling, FloraHolland (the Royal Cooperative Flower Auction FloraHolland) closed 2014 with a turnover of €4.4 billion. This represents growth of 1.2% compared to the previous year.
At FloraHolland, the largest international marketplace for flowers and plants in the world, 12.5 billion products were bought and sold last year. A slight increase in both prices and volume contributed to the growth in turnover. Although there are differences per product group, in 2014, growers on average received 0.2% more for their flowers and plants than the year before. The total sales volume increased by 1%.
The total turnover of cut flowers bought and sold via the auction in 2014 totalled €2.5 billion, which is an increase of 0.7% compared to the previous year. The volume of this product group increased by 1% while the average price dropped slightly by 0.3%. The total turnover of the houseplants product group increased by 2.6% to €1.6 billion. This growth is largely attributable to a 1.9% increase in the average price.
The number of supplied units was slightly higher (0.8%) than last year. In 2013, the turnover of garden plants dropped as a result of a very long winter and this was followed in 2014 by another drop in turnover in 2014 due to the extremely mild winter. A slight increase in volume of 0.3% and a drop in price of 1.5% brought the turnover in this group to €0.35 billion.
In 2014, a shift was again apparent from clock sales to direct sales channels. At 2.7%, this shift was less significant than in the previous year. Auction sales represented 48.9% of the total turnover in 2014, while 51.1% was sold via direct channels. As the volume at the clock is expected to decrease further, FloraHolland is taking an initiative called ‘FloraHolland 2020’ receiving ideas from auction members, their customers and FloraHolland staff.