Flower sales: building a profitable local logistics network is possible!

Do you know Aalsmeer, a municipality in the Netherlands? No? Yet the bouquet of flowers proudly displayed in your living room does. There is every chance that it came from there. Aalsmeer is home to the world’s largest flower market. Often referred to as the Wall Street of flowers, it has everything—including practices that can seem ecologically nonsensical at a time when everyone is extolling the virtues of more environmentally responsible consumption. 

Hydrangeas picked in Brittany, for instance, may be sent to Aalsmeer to be auctioned before returning to France to be sold by any florist in the country. That amounts, almost unnoticed, to a journey of 1,500 kilometers or more. Absurd? Perhaps—but it is easily explained. First, local production is not always greener. According to a 2007 study by Cranfield University in England, a Kenyan rose emits six times less CO2, including air travel, than a Dutch rose grown in a greenhouse heated with natural gas. Consolidation also guarantees a tightly managed logistics cost structure: bringing everything together in one area maximizes the chances of then supplying all of Europe at lower cost, with fully loaded trucks running on optimized delivery routes.   

And in this regard, the Netherlands has made itself indispensable. “Between 80% and 85% of cut flowers sold in France are imported—from Colombia, Ecuador, and Kenya—and the vast majority pass through the Netherlands, which has become the market’s essential platform over decades,” explains Hortense Harang, co-founder of Fleurs d’ici, whose mission is precisely to offer an alternative to this system. 

But first, a little history. The Netherlands’ rise to such prominence stems from a long-standing industrial choice—tulips have been grown there since 1594—which took on colossal proportions after World War II thanks to two particular advantages. First, the presence of polders, with constantly moist, calcareous, well-drained soils ideal for growing flowers. Then, the discovery of major gas reserves, which made it possible to develop highly efficient heated greenhouse cultivation systems. 

Industrial and logistics optimization did the rest: as major producers, and exceptionally well organized to sell their output, the Netherlands quickly added production from other countries to its own base. This made it possible to find any flower there, from any country. And at very competitive prices, since consolidating flows naturally optimizes costs through the economies of scale it generates. 

Yet, as Rémy Vernet, Director of Digital Supply Chain at SAP France, points out in a recent study published in March 2023, “an innovative approach” is possible. In his words, “while supply-chain management used to consist primarily of reducing costs, businesses today face the challenge of staying ahead of consumer demand while reducing carbon emissions, lowering staff turnover, and keeping costs low.” In other words, yesterday’s certainties, based solely on the principles of consolidation, are becoming—and will continue to become—less valid. Other, more societal imperatives must now be considered. 

And that is fortunate: they can be embraced without sacrificing profitability. “It is entirely possible to grow locally, transport locally, and consume locally, while building a profitable system. That is what we are working toward with Fleurs d’ici,” says Hortense Harang. How can a full truck leaving the Netherlands compete with a myriad of local vans? “It requires working with micro-flows and a multitude of different players. In short, it means moving from a centralized to a distributed model, but the power of digital technology helps us make it possible, and we can coordinate all this information in real time, with full efficiency,” she explains. 

The ultimate logic remains the same: “Knowing how to consolidate flows and optimize the supply chain, particularly transportation, which for cut flowers accounts for an average of 70% of the final price,” says Hortense Harang. Whether the starting point is Dutch platforms or local operations in France, if trucks or vans are running empty, clearly no system will be viable. But if the transportation issue is resolved, organizing flows from a multitude of local “hubs,” rather than from a single centralized one in the Netherlands, is a sustainable solution. 

Fleurs d’ici therefore developed its We Trade Local platform to interconnect the three links in the value chain: local growers, local distributors, and local carriers, using decarbonized means of transport (that is, electric vehicles). “For the system to be profitable, we need at least five growers within an area that we always limit to 160 kilometers,” stresses Hortense Harang. “This limited perimeter enables us to reduce the carbon footprint of our bouquets by a factor of 30,” continues Hortense Harang, who sees her role somewhat as that of “a conductor.” But a highly connected conductor, using the full power of AI and data to orchestrate this local score… 

Beyond these interconnections between professionals, the idea is to eliminate any need for warehousing in order to optimize costs. This small 160-km radius makes that possible, allowing upstream growers to be linked directly with downstream florists. Provided, of course, that electric truck routes can be managed precisely in this case. Having a sound sales forecast—and AI helps anticipate customers’ purchasing behavior—is therefore a prerequisite. 

This brings us to the last major imperative: end customers must play their part. Quite clearly, they must accept the idea that roses on Valentine’s Day may not be such a good idea, for example. “A Valentine’s Day rose is a little like eating strawberries or tomatoes in winter,” says Hortense Harang, who emphasizes equally beautiful-to-receive and enjoyable-to-give alternatives: ranunculus, anemones, and mimosas, which bloom in France at that time of year. But at what price? Hortense Harang insists that giving a French bouquet costs no more and can even be 20% to 30% less expensive than imported flowers. “It is all a matter of education,” she concludes. “Consumers are clearly ready to understand these issues if we explain them properly.” In the meantime, the approach is beginning to bear fruit: “While there were more than 30,000 horticulturists in France in 1972, the figure had fallen to around 3,500, but has risen by more than 300 over the past four years.” A flower farm opens its doors in France every week, concludes the co-founder of Fleurs d’ici.