Flower auction, a form of merchandisition

Török, Áron

Keywords: Holland, Alsmeer, auction, stock exchange, flower exchange

Researches have shown that the demand for ornamental plants is related to income. A growth of 1% in GDP brings about nearly 2% increase in “flower consumption”. During the 20th century an increasingly larger part of the world became so called affluent societies and the demand for ornamental plants increased many fold during the past decades. The production of ornamental plants, or perhaps its trade, in certain countries has become not an indispensible fraction of the national GDP. The most effective method for merchandising ornamental plants whole sale is auctioning, which has been first used in Holland, a “world power” in flower production. Various flower exchanges co-ordinate well the demand and supply markets in a given region, due to their speed and efficiency they spur an ordinarily rapid process, in which the ornamental plant moves from the producer’s greenhouse to the consumer’s table. Flower auctions generate to their owners, who consist mostly of growers, profits not to be neglected. Furthermore thanks to available financial services growers get the price for their goods almost immediately, favouring their state of financial liquidity. The strategic position of Hungary is favourable, because it is situated outside the “operational territory” of Holland. A possible establishment of a South Alföld flower exchange together with appropriate logistics and commercial investments would place Hungary in a leading position in that region in the field of ornamental plant marketing that would have a favourable effect on the whole sector.