Liège Airport has the potential to become the flower hub of the future. This was said by Willum van den Hoogen, Managing Director of the international flower market, Florius International FCZO, during a focus on commodities at the Liège e-Commerce forum. There is, however, still a way to go.
That the reflection on flowers popped up, was due to the fact that some e-commerce aircraft always take flowers on return trips from South America and Africa. Emirates SkyCargo’s SVP Commercial Worldwide, Jeffrey van Haeften, said that flowers will remain an important commodity.
In this segment, however, infrastructure is everything, said Mr van den Hoogen. “Flowers are a decaying product, with an ideal conservation temperature of +1°C. You need handlers with aircraft parking in front of the door to the warehouse so that the products can be put straight into the vacuum coolers.”
Florius has set up a well-performing flower route between Nairobi and Amsterdam, which is very satisfactory, he lauded. Neither Liège (LGG) nor Brussels (BRU) can match this at the moment, the manager assessed. Yet, the opportunities are there, he concluded: “At Schiphol, we are facing issues such as the general policy of the airport, slot scarcity, lack of space and environmental concerns. Amsterdam’s role as a main port is being reduced, which could favor Liège, especially if they manage to offer the same service. That is not yet the case. At Liège Airport, flowers are still handled as general cargo, and the airport does not have the right cooling infrastructure, yet.”
LGG will invest in infrastructure
Torsten Wefers said that the airport handled 700 tons of flowers per day in 2023. “Yet, three handlers – whose names I cannot share at this moment – are willing to invest in the necessary infrastructure, such as vacuum freezers,” he said, indicating upcoming improvements.
The flowers supply chain starts at the first mile, said Dirk Goovaerts, Head Middle East and Africa for Swissport. He referred to the ‘Flower Corridor’ that Swissport launched at Nairobi Airport in 2022, which seamlessly connects the farms with the aircraft. “That is different to e-commerce, where the last mile is important and that is something to be left to the specialists.” Mr. van den Hoogen is convinced that air cargo will remain the premier mode of transport for flowers. “Due to environmental demands, there is a push for flowers to be transported by sea containers and I would use it if I could. But apart from the political situation, there is the distance from Africa to the consumer markets. We try to diminish our carbon footprint by putting 130 flowers instead of 110 in one box. So, we up our transport volume by using less boxes.”
Aided by several factors, AMS seems to have a peculliar urge to shoot itself on its foot! This time – flowers.
Small but very important important correction, LGG handles up to 700 tons of flowers per day (and not 7.000 tons per year)!