March 24, 2010, the Netherlands – Rail transit of floriculture products by FloraHolland reached a milestone earlier this year with the 75th container arriving in Italy on March 18.

GreenRail began transporting plant containers by rail in mid-2009. Since then, two to three containers on average have been transported to Italy on a weekly basis. In late 2009, GreenRail also opened up routes to Hungary and Romania. Routes to Poland (Poznan and Warsaw) and Switzerland will follow later this month. These pilots are part of the GreenRail project, in which flower auction FloraHolland and the VGB (Association of Wholesalers in Floricultural Products) are arranging the transportation of floriculture and AGF products along conventional railway lines in Europe. The results have been promising.

GreenRail is demonstrating that for the floriculture industry, rail transportation is a highly suitable method of long-distance transportation. It has demonstrated itself to be a greener, reliable, and cost effective option for the transportation of floriculture products, given the rising costs of road transport, increasing limitations on driving and break times, and increased traffic congestion. A rail trip over long distances (over 600 kilometres) provides a 50 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and a reduction in costs of approximately 10 per cent per Danish trolley compared to road transport. Rail transport is also reliable: 96 per cent of the containers were shipped on time, while the quality of the products is of the same level as with road transport.

The need for sustainable enterprise, the limitations of accessibility and infrastructure, and the uncertainty surrounding fuel prices necessitate the development of alternative logistical concepts. This requires cooperation throughout the chain. GreenRail, an initiative of FloraHolland and the VGB, is aimed at strengthening the position of the Netherlands as international centre of the floriculture sector in the interest of production and trade. 

FloraHolland is a co-operative flower auction of six national and international marketplaces (Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk, Rijnsburg, Venlo, Bleiswijk and Eelde), a national intermediary organization (FloraHolland Connect), and an internationally active import department. Annual turnover exceeds 3.8 billion euros (about $5.2 billlion Cdn). It’s the world’s largest auction organization, processing over 12 billion flowers and plants a year and employing 4,400 people.