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Flowers from The Netherlands are exported all over the world, but due to high temperatures and humidity along the way, they do not always arrive fresh at their destination. This can shorten the vase-life of the flowers. Using dataloggers, exporter Greenwings and Wageningen agrotechnologists can now chart the weak spots in the flower chain.

Greenwings, exporter of cut flowers in the Dutch city of Aalsmeer , regularly sends flowers by plane to Japan . The journey sometimes takes a week. The quality of the roses, tulips and other flower varieties can be considerably reduced due to high temperatures. Sicknesses, such as the much-feared botrytis, can also affect the flowers due to high humidity along the way. Once, flowers arrived in Japan frozen.

Greenwings is determined to tackle such hindrances to the trade. "It would be great if we know what obstacles are along the way so that we can do something beforehand to avoid them," said Chris van Arenthals of Greenwings. He wants to chart the course of the flowers from the supplier to the customer, so as to find out the causes of quality loss and to adopt a proactive approach to prevent these. This process is known as tracking and tracing.

This is why Greenwings participates in KwaliTenT, a project in which researchers of Agrotechnology & Food Innovations / EC-Pack measure and analyse the climate conditions during the journey. The project is commissioned by Productschap Tuinbouw. It uses ‘dataloggers’ attached to the flowers which measure the temperature and humidity every 30 minutes. Upon arrival in Japan , these dataloggers are removed by the customer and mailed back to Greenwings in attached envelops. The data on the dataloggers is then uploaded via an internet site to a central database.

In the last few months of 2003, such an exercise had been carried out for 50 batches of flowers exported to Japan . This has allowed specific incidents along the way to be captured. "We have traced the reason for the frozen flowers," said Arenthals. "They had been standing in the open in Schiphol Airport , in temperatures of - 6 ° C for several hours before being loaded into the plane. This is a big mistake, and we have discussed this with one of our partners and come to an agreement so that this will not happen again."

The main aim of the research project is to find ways to structurally reduce quality loss of the flowers along the way, said EC-Pack researcher Marten Thors. "If the airlines KLM and JAL are supposed to transport the flowers at, for example, 5 ° C, which the exporter is paying for, we can now measure if that indeed is the case." In addition, humidity can also lead to condensation problems; if high humidity is detected, suitable packaging can be used to reduce the effects.

"Our advantage is not only that we can measure, but also that we can come up with a quality progress model for each flower variety. We can show how the various factors of temperature, humidity and length of time cause a certain product to lose its quality. During the journey, temperature and humidity are the top culprits, but contributing factors are the initial quality and the flower variety itself. A superb product which is handled averagely along the way can arrive in a better state than an average product handled superbly along the way."

A first analysis of the information from the dataloggers points to a too high temperature along the journey. "We can see that the temperature in the boxes with flowers rise in the course of the journey. This is quite normal. But the initial temperature is often too high; flowers often enter the plane at 10 – 12 ° C. The ideal temperature is 4 ° C. The exporter has therefore to arrange for better cooling before this stage so that the flowers can arrive at the customer in a better state."
Van Arenthals: "I do believe in pre-cooling, but that means investments. Can we justify these costs by increasing the quality and trust in our products? We need information to answer this question, such as the causes of quality loss along the way. That is why this project is so useful."

Thors hopes to come up with concrete conclusions this summer. But first, the exercise with the dataloggers have to be done in warm weather. "In summer, it can be 35 ° C in Japan . When the flowers arrive at the airport in Japan , they stand for an average of four hours under a roof, before the following move. This will certainly lead to quality loss. We want to find out how high this peak in the temperature is. One might consider storage in a cool area, and if such investment is worthwhile."

Such an investment can also be viewed against complaints and claims from the Japanese customers. "At this moment, the exporter bears all losses, in order to gain customers," said Thors. "With the datalogger, we can show which party is actually responsible for the weak spots in the chain and make claims, if necessary. But we can also adopt a positive approach: the fact that the supplier takes measures to monitor the conditions during the journey is proof to the customer of his stringent quality control measures. This is one way Dutch flower exporters can continue to create a niche for themselves in the market."