Mother’s Day week is behind us again, one of the more important flower days of the year. In the run-up to Mother’s Day, the excitement is always palpable, auctioneer Erik Wassenaar says in the column below: “This always guarantees a lot of buying power on the clocks of Royal FloraHolland.”
It was not only Mother’s Day in the Netherlands, but also in Germany, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Austria and the Czech Republic. As a result, buying power (the number of buyers logged on to the clocks) was high. The number of logged-in buyers increases every year due to the ever-increasing sophistication of buying by KOA (remote buying) in various countries.
A number of other ‘flower days’ are on the calendar in the coming weeks. Poland celebrates Mother’s Day on 26 May and Sweden on 30 May. France’s Mother’s Day falls ‘late’: Sunday 4 June. All these Mother’s Days will certainly have a positive impact on prices. Right now, across Europe, final exam candidates are sweating on exam subjects. Traditionally, Scandinavian countries celebrate the end of this exam time and passing with giving flowers to the successful students and teachers. Fortunately, we see this phenomenon spreading further and further across Europe, which of course we only welcome!
Cold spring
The relatively cold weather in the Netherlands caused production to lag slightly behind, resulting in slightly lower numbers on the clock. The weather also did not cooperate in Kenya, which particularly affected rose numbers. In plants, demand for Mother’s Day was excellent and prices were fine. Phaleanopsis, Begonias and various exclusive products did well.
According to the upcoming weather forecast, temperatures finally seem to be rising a bit. This is definitely going to affect the number of flowers that will hit the market, especially the ‘outdoor goods’ such as peonies. During this period, consumer purchases always shift from year-round flowers to the seasonal ones. Among garden plants, we see demand increasing for the summer annuals, which are in good demand among buyers and consumers. This is partly due to the various plant markets and people going back into their gardens, which generates additional demand.
We hope, of course, that not everything comes to market in one big bang, but nicely spread out so that buyers (and especially) consumers can calmly get used to the spring assortment. Hand in hand with the year-round products. But what always remains true for supply as well as buying power: the weather is key.
