NL: Royal FloraHolland gives update on auctions

"Royal FloraHolland have been auctioning for more than 100 years. To be future-proof, the company continues to change and invest. In 2024 it made great progress with Central Auctioning, Eelde recently auctioned on Floriday via RFH Auction and conducted various experiments." In 2025, the company says that it will build on all these developments with the aim of easy trading and optimal pricing.

Central Auctioning Plants
In March 2024 - after all the roses in late 2023 - RFH started with the first central plant clock. And recently, all plants have been transferred to central clocks. The company don't have the final results yet, but have seen with previous central clocks that this leads to positive effects such as better purchasing power, more stable pricing, and higher buyer satisfaction. Growers also have more influence on their own auction orders. Decisions on the further rollout of Central Auctioning of flowers are expected to be taken in the first quarter of 2025.

Auctioning via Floriday in Eelde
To future-proof the clock, RFH launched the RFH Auction in Eelde at the end of November. That is an app on Floriday that allows buyers to easily buy on the clock. The company also launched RFH Pre-Auction for auction preparation, such as viewing and marking clock supply. "With this, we are gradually saying goodbye to outdated systems such as Remote Buying (KOA) and FloraMondo (FMO). Through Floriday, we can offer buyers more and more new purchasing options." At the moment, no date is known for the roll-out of RFH Auction across the hubs Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk, and Rijnsburg. It is expected to take place in 2025.

Auction Presales
Several experiments took place here in the autumn. As a result, from 17 December, growers will have the option of reducing the Auction Presales price during the day. Also, the maximum percentage of Auction Presales will be increased to 80%. As a result of the equal start time of the central plant clocks (06:30), from 12 December the opening time of Auction Presales plants has been extended to 06:25 at the Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk, and Rijnsburg hubs.

Own auction order
According to Royal Flora Holland, it was the wish of many growers to have more control over the auction order of their products within a certain auction group. Especially useful if you have several gardens. As of 22 November, it is possible to indicate your auction order for all plant auction groups. For flowers, this is possible at Naaldwijk and Rijnsburg. In Aalsmeer, this is only possible for clock C06 and auction group 190. In Floriday you can find exactly how setting up your auction sequence works.

Multi transaction auctioning
Since the summer, a pilot with multi-transaction auctioning (MTA) has been running on central rose clock C08. This allows multiple buyers to make a purchase on one clock stop. "In the pilot, we are investigating whether MTA offers advantages such as auction duration reduction and price stability." This pilot has been extended twice to gain more insight. A mid-term evaluation will take place during the FPC Roses on 15 January 2025.