Import agent Fresco Flowers processes around 450 million stems from Kenyan growers per year. Ninety percent of the roses are clock auctioned at Royal FloraHolland (RFH). Fresco swears by the clock. “We believe the auction clock is the chief earnings model for RFH. We will continue to fight for a strong clock.”
The Fresco Flowers processing hall in the RFH building in Aalsmeer is bustling with activity. In the run-up to International Women’s Day, Fresco’s 23 machines are being operated by Turkish, Bulgarian and Polish employees. They process around 2.5 million roses every day for this holiday, checking the roses that have arrived at Dock Services from Kenya, suspending them in bunches of ten and removing any damaged items. The machine then cuts a small piece off the bottom of the bunches and wraps them in foil. At the end of the line, an employee takes the roses off the conveyor belt and puts them in water. The auction packages end up on a trolley. All that needs to be done now is attach an auction letter to the trolley, and the roses are ready for auctioning the next morning.
The hustle and bustle in Fresco’s hall is daily practice for the largest processing company at RFH. It processes around 450 million Kenyan roses annually, constituting 65 percent of the rose supply from Kenya to RFH and roughly 40 percent of the overall rose supply to the auction. Fresco Flowers has grown rapidly in its 20-year existence, according to Commercial Manager Aart Buizer and Operations Manager Rico Telleman. “Though a few growers have joined us over the years, we’ve grown mainly because our growers expanded.” Fresco Flowers growers now own a combined total of around 360 hectares of roses.
