Just like the tens of thousands of stranged airline passengers, the volcano errupting in Iceland has affected the global flower market by halting transportation from Europe to America.
As you know, Lowe’s Floral, your local Minot, ND florist purchases flowers from all over the globe to get the best prices and the freshest blooms. This week, we recieved a phone call from a vendor in South Dakota, informing us that our weekly order of Dutch tulips hadn’t left Holland because none of the air freight carriers were flying yet. We could get hybrid, hydroponic tulips from California, no problem, but not our normal Dutch tulips.
This got us thinking about what other flower crops were going to be in short supply based on the distribution system of the global flower market. This may sound boring, but if you have never seen pictures of the Aalsmeer Flower Market in Holland, you really need to! Flowers fly in from around the world. Then electric trains move thousands of buckets of flowers across an auction floor. These flowers are bid upon by buyers from across the globe. All transactions happen in Euros (the Common European Currency) and are then sent by plane to their final desination.
Thus, if no planes are flying because an Icelandic Volcano spews dust and soot, then no Dutch tulips make to the Dakotas.
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