Dutch exports of flower bulbs grew by more than 30 percent in five years

The Dutch export of flower bulbs is doing well: in 2022, more than a billion euros worth of flower bulbs were exported, according to a count published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Friday. That is more than 30 percent more than five years before. Within ten years, the agricultural land used for flower bulbs in the Netherlands has increased by 21 percent, to more than 28 thousand hectares in 2023.

Not everyone in the area surrounding the bulb fields is happy with this, because the use of pesticides in flower (bulb) cultivation is many times higher than in food production. European plans to reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture were scrapped in February. However, the use of pesticides in flower bulb cultivation has decreased slightly over the last decade, it appears Numbers from CBS. The popularity of the tulip and the lily increased. Lily cultivation in particular uses an exceptionally high amount of pesticides compared to other flower bulbs.

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Flower bulb cultivation has been growing since the 1980s, although the number of specialized growers has actually decreased in the past decade. More and more farmers are growing flower bulbs as an additional income. The success of the flower bulb does not apply to flowers and plants in general: their export stagnated in recent years due to inflation and the energy crisis.

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