The International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) members consist of thousands of growers of flowers and ornamental plants around the world who are together united by one essential goal – promoting the place of plants in people’s lives.
AIPH is responsible for approving the world’s most exceptional horticultural expos creating long lasting green legacies in cities across the globe.
AIPH Blooming Economies & Cities to Inspire The World 2.0. Up-to-date statistics from recent Expos hosted in Asia and Europe.
Learn moreAIPH hosts several conferences, webinars and events such as the International Grower of the Year award throughout the year. Read about these along with the latest news about the association’s activities.
The AIPH International Grower of the Year Awards celebrate the best of the best in ornamental horticulture
Learn moreAIPH’s key aim is to stimulate demand for ornamental trees, plants and flowers worldwide. We are committed to supporting growers in achieving this by protecting and promoting the interests of the industry.
The AIPH’s Global Industry Intelligence Centre (GIIC) is an international hub for industry information and knowledge exchange.
The report contains insights on production and consumption of the floriculture industry in Thailand, imports and exports, and business opportunities
DownloadAIPH Green City activities promote the essential role of plants in creating vibrant urban areas in which people and businesses can thrive.
Crates with colorful flowers and plants on a Dutch flower auction
Designed with flexibility in mind, Floriday supports everything from real-time stock updates to contract management and system integration—helping growers and buyers trade more efficiently across the global floriculture industry.
Royal FloraHolland is the world’s largest international floriculture marketplace, operating as both a grower cooperative and a business entity. As part of its strategy to digitise the entire chain, the cooperative is advancing Floriday—a smart, collaborative platform designed to connect growers, buyers, and service providers through one integrated digital environment. In this exclusive Q&A, CCO for Buyer and Direct Trade Martin de Ruiter and Chief Information Officer André van der Linden explain how Floriday is shaping the future of trade, data, and collaboration in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
FloraCulture International: How is Floriday evolving to support the day-to-day needs of growers and buyers at different scales— from small family businesses to larger exporters?
Martin De Ruiter, CCO Buyer, International and Direct Trade, Royal FloraHolland.
Martin De Ruiter: “Royal FloraHolland has two key goals: to remain a healthy and attractive cooperative for our members and to build the largest international B2B platform in the floriculture sector. With Floriday, we make the industry more accessible by providing a single international platform that connects our members and suppliers, buyers, service providers, and software partners.
Floriday is continuously evolving with new features and smart tools that enable growers and buyers of all sizes to trade easily and efficiently. Through Floriday, they can manage their assortment, receive and process orders, and communicate directly with each other.
Growers can choose how they want to trade by offering customer-specific selections, working with stock, or presenting their full offering to a wider customer base. Buyers can easily search through all available supplies using Explorer (Floriday’s search engine), place targeted requests with growers, or visit a grower’s digital shop. This flexibility allows every user to work in a way that suits their business needs.
Thanks to our co-creation approach, we develop Floriday in close collaboration with users. Every new feature is validated with growers and buyers through ideation and feedback sessions. Our support teams and Floriday specialists are in daily contact with users to understand their needs, while our interactive roadmap allows users to share ideas and request new functionalities.”
What recent developments or improvements within the platform have had the most impact on grower adoption and buyer engagement?
“We continuously improve the platform based on direct feedback from users to help growers and buyers grow their businesses while simplifying and optimising their processes. A recent improvement has been the introduction of long-term contract functionality, allowing growers and buyers to formalise agreements and manage recurring orders directly through Floriday. Growers also have the option to create their own shop in Floriday, where they can display Direct Trade, Clock Presales, and Day Trade offerings. International trade is also supported with features such as export box formats and dollar-based transactions. Growers experience fewer incorrect orders, benefit from a faster sales process, and have less manual work. As a result, growers can save on labour costs.
Buyers benefit from the Explorer, where they can search the full range of flowers and plants using smart filters and buy directly from thousands of growers. More and more buyers are integrating their own ERP systems via API connections, allowing them to purchase based on real-time stock and to immediately share assortments with their own customers. This greatly improves efficiency in the process of buying and reduces error-related costs because orders and information no longer need to be entered manually. It leads to savings in labour costs, and the availability of real-time information increases delivery reliability.
Our onboarding and user support efforts ensure that every user can get the most out of the platform.”
How do you see Floriday contributing to international trade relationships, particularly in light of your work on buyer partnerships and the platform’s global reach?
“Floriday plays a key role in strengthening international trade relationships by offering a digital platform that simplifies cross-border transactions. International buyers registered at Royal FloraHolland gain access to a reliable and up-to-date supply from thousands of growers. In contrast, growers gain visibility among a broad base of potential buyers.
Floriday enables a faster response to global demand for flowers and plants. By partnering with international growers, buyers, and software providers, we are building a strong digital ecosystem that positions the floriculture sector globally and connects all players in the supply chain.”
FloraCulture International: What are the most significant digital shifts Royal FloraHolland has undertaken in the past year, and where does Floriday sit within that broader strategy?
André van der Linden, CIO at Royal FloraHolland.
André van der Linden: “Royal FloraHolland’s digital transformation has accelerated over the past years, with a strong focus on three priorities: digitising trade processes, modernising and decoupling our IT architecture to improve agility, and developing Floriday as the sector’s central digital platform. Floriday is central to the RFH strategy and is the kernel of RFH’s digital platform that aims to connect growers and buyers with the promise to grow their business and simplify their processes.
Floriday serves as the digital infrastructure for the entire floriculture industry and forms the foundation upon which we build new services and strengthen our role as the central marketplace. Sustainability transparency is also gaining importance. Floriday is evolving to give buyers more insight into certification data and to simplify packaging declarations through the packaging registry. Exchanging information throughout the entire sector in an efficient way is not possible without a solid digital infrastructure such as Floriday.
How do you balance the technical side of platform development with the real-world needs of users, especially when working with external software partners?
“From the start, Floriday has been developed in close collaboration with users. Through ideation and validation sessions, we ensure technical development aligns with real-world practice and user needs.
We do this in close collaboration with external software suppliers. This is a structural partnership between Floriday and the external software vendors that provide ERP or inventory management systems to growers and buyers in the floriculture sector. The goal of this collaboration is to ensure good, reliable, and up-to-date integrations between the software packages that growers and buyers use on a daily basis and the Floriday platform.
Twice a year, we release a new update to the API connections that software vendors provide to their customers. Together with them, we determine the content of these releases and carry out extensive testing. We ensure optimal platform accessibility and stable integrations. This approach ensures that we develop technology that truly adds value for growers and buyers.”
What does digital success look like for Royal FloraHolland in the next 12–18 months, and what role does data integrity and collaboration play in that future?
“Digital success means that more and more trade flows — both direct trade and clock sales — are conducted digitally, that growers publish their supply on Floriday, and that buyers across the globe are able to find and purchase this supply. For the past few years, Floriday’s focus has mainly been on enabling direct trade. Today, Floriday also makes possible clock supply, auction preparation, clock presales, and the auction itself.
Data quality is critical to achieving this. Only with reliable, current, and standardised data can we automate processes and make the chain more efficient. At the same time, collaboration is essential — with growers, buyers, and software partners — to build a future-proof and connected industry together. Growers and buyers entrust their data to Floriday. Data Governance measures are in place to guarantee that this data is only being used and accessible for the intended goals. The effectiveness of the data governance measures is being verified by an external auditor on an annual basis.”
This article was first published in the tech-themed June 2025 issue of FloraCulture International.
