Import agent Decofresh has been growing with its customers in recent years. Growth is necessary, notes Pini Cohen, because costs are rising. An import agent cannot simply pass on its costs to its customers, as that would make it too expensive for African growers to ship flowers to the Netherlands. “If prices at the auction are not good, the numbers drop immediately,” he says.
The Decofresh hall at Royal FloraHolland Aalsmeer looks deserted this Wednesday afternoon at around 16:00. The processing lines have been unused for a while as the day shift, which starts around 6 am, has just gone home. This is merely the calm before the storm that will soon break when the evening shift arrives, Cohen explains.
The evening shift starts at around 5 pm and will continue until the work is done, which might be at 1:00 am or later, depending on the season. “At peak times, they need until the arrival of the morning shift,” says Cohen. “And so it continues, six days a week. Sometimes Saturday is their day off, sometimes Sunday.”
