Aalsmeer Flower Auction (''Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer'') is a flower auction that takes place in

Aalsmeer Aalsmeer () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Its name is derived from the Dutch for eel (''aal'') and lake (''meer''). Aalsmeer is bordered by the Westeinderplassen lake, the largest open water o ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It is the largest flower auction in the world. The Aalsmeer Flower Auction building is the ninth largest building by floor area in the world, covering . Flowers from all over the world —

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

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, and other countries — are traded every day in this gigantic building. Around 43 million flowers are sold daily. This increases by around 15 percent around special days such as

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

and

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in Mar ...

. Their flowers are subjected to around 30 quality checks so that they can be graded on a scale (A1, A2 and B). The auction is set up as a

Dutch auction A Dutch auction is one of several similar types of auctions for buying or selling goods. Most commonly, it means an auction in which the auctioneer begins with a high offer price in the case of selling, and lowers it until some participant accep ...

in which the price starts high and works its way down. Bidders get only a few seconds to bid on the flowers before they are sold and passed on to the new owner. On 1 January 2008, the auction company merged with its biggest competitor

Royal FloraHolland Royal FloraHolland, legally Koninklijke Coöperatieve Bloemenveiling Royal FloraHolland U.A., is a Dutch conglomerate of florists. It is one of the largest auction companies in the world. Royal FloraHolland is headquartered in Aalsmeer, with ...

. In 2021 the organiser of the auction, Royal Flora Holland, acquired three companies that specialise in the transportation of flowers and plants: De Winter, Van Marrewijk (Wematrans) and Van Zaal. They were combined into a new transportation company called Floriway.

References

External links

FloraHolland Flower AuctionBBC documentary featuring the Aalsmeer Flower Auction
Buildings and structures in North Holland Dutch auction houses Flower markets Cooperatives in the Netherlands Aalsmeer Organisations based in the Netherlands with royal patronage Companies based in North Holland Contexts for auctions {{horticulture-stub