To the consumer, Rose stays number one

The acreage where Dutch roses are grown continues to decrease a little and the turnover for the Dutch rose is expected to become lower in 2016, compared to the year before. However, one thing remains unchanged: the product Rose remains de most important cut flower for the consumer.

'Due to this warm winter, the supply of the product Dutch Rose as well as the international product Rose continues to do well', says Janneke de Jong from FloraHolland. She is the successor of FloraHolland Product Coordinator Roos, Will Zuiderdijk, after he transferred to Amaryllis and Calla. 'In other words, so far the weather has not hindered neither the supply nor the sales. This was quite different in recent years, when heavy snowfall shut down entire regions due to a slump in supply and sales.'

Premium market

Market developments show that rose breeders in the Netherlands and South America mostly focus on the premium market, according to Janneke. 'The African rose breeders focus more on the lower and middle segment. However, lately some African suppliers are good enough to trade in the premium segment. This makes South America and Africa formidable players in the market.'

800 million Euro

Compared to other large products, such as Tulip and Chrysanthemum, the Rose still occupies first place. When adding the results of all sales instruments from Royal FloraHolland, this comes to an annual turnover of around 800 million Euro worth of roses at the auction. 'The colour pallet on the clock has been stable for years. Red, pink and white are by far the most popular colours and they represent not less than 64 percent of the clock supply. Based on volume, in 2015 the largest varieties on the clock were: Belle Rose, Marie Claire, Athena, Red Naomi en Avalanche+. Of all roses traded via FloraHolland, 26 percent goes to Germany. Furthermore many roses go to France and the United Kingdom. In a not-insignificant number of cases the roses remain in the Netherlands.'

Product market plan

In order to provide the product Rose with some additional support, four initiatives have been prioritised in 2015. These initiatives were developed into the Product market plan by the FloraHolland Product team, in cooperation with the FPC. In this context Janneke informs that these initiatives will be followed up and further implemented in 2016. One of these initiatives concerns the experiment 'auctioning boxes'. This will be continued for the near future. The Product team cooperates with the department Product market information. Together they have realised a poster with the title 'The world of roses'. The international playing field of the rose can be seen on this poster. In the short term a theme report on Germany will be published. The consumer research which was executed for rose, confirmed matters regarding consumer behaviour. But it also provided us with new insights. The information from this research will be used in developing the promotion plan for rose.

Valentine promotions

With Valentine just around the corner, Janneke informs that Bloemen Bureau Holland organises a remarkable initiative to promote sales every year. 'Two years ago we organised “In Case of Love at First Site”, where we spread love and happiness in Paris by placing 1,500 red alarm boxes with a red rose. Last year Cupidrone brought love to Verona, city of the worlds most famous love couple Romeo and Juliet. And this year Cupid will help in Rome to spread the love by means of distributing roses. Undoubtedly this will be another much talked about promotion!'