Exhausted but satisfied, mayor Gido Oude Kotte (43) of the North Holland village of Aalsmeer knocks the red fabric off his trousers. After a long day, he sits down at a patio table in the south of Nairobi. Later than planned, because it is rush hour in the hectic capital of Kenya.
Oude Kotte visited one of the largest rose fairs in the world, five rose farms, a flower packaging company and two refrigerated transporters during the past midweek. He has just returned from a visit to a hospital and a school funded by Dutch rose growers in Kenya. The enthusiasm radiates from him.
CDA mayor Oude Kotte may have had a great time during his first visit to Kenya, but he did not travel to the other side of the world for pleasure. His municipality, Aalsmeer, is home to a prominent Dutch multinational, the Royal Flora Holland flower auction, where more than ten billion flowers are traded each year.
The auction takes place in the fourth largest building in the world. “The same size as Montecarlo,” says Oude Kotte proudly. For the municipality, the auction is a showpiece, but at the same time a pertinent headache. Flowers have come to be in a bad light in recent years because of their impact on the environment, the climate and because of the poor working conditions that were repeatedly found at the growers.
The problem for Oude Kotte is that these issues often take place far beyond his field of vision: the controversial flowers traded in his municipality are mainly grown in Africa and South America.
See with your own eyes
Oude Kotte has been mayor of Aalsmeer since 2019. “Of course I now know everything about the Dutch side of the flower sector,” he says, “but as mayor I am also expected to form opinions and make decisions that affect the entire international chain. Too often I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t just pass judgment from Aalsmeer. So I wanted to see for myself how our flowers are grown and what the impact is.”
Kenya was a logical choice for such a working visit. Meanwhile, 3,600 hectares of fertile Kenyan soil are used to grow roses, compared to only 160 hectares in the Netherlands. Moreover, says Oude Kotte, the ties between Aalsmeer and Kenya are strong.
About three decades ago, Dutch flower growers, often from Aalsmeer and the surrounding area, moved to Kenya. In the Netherlands, labor and energy became too expensive, but for many of the proud family businesses in the flower industry, ceasing operations was not an option.
Kenya has a perfect climate for growing roses all year round, plenty of fresh water and is politically stable compared to other countries in the region. Low labor costs and poor labor and environmental rights meant that growers could cheaply move their operations to Kenya. In most cases, the international companies are still located in the small Aalsmeer.
Clods of Dutchmen
In Kenya, Oude Kotte met many familiar faces. Particularly at the International Floriculture Trade Expo (IFTEX), the reason for Oude Kotte’s visit. The IFTEX is a conference where breeders, growers and buyers come together. The Dutch ambassador to Kenya, Maarten Brouwer, and Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs, CDA) also visited the event. Whoever steps inside sees the clumps of Dutch people shaking hands between the rose stalls. Although the mayor knew that us-know-us is very common in the flower world, he was amazed by the amount of acquaintances he encountered. “I came across half my village. I suddenly heard someone calling my name, it turned out to be a rowing buddy from twenty years ago. That is now general manager at a company that makes sachets for flower food.”
After the conference, Oude Kotte left for Lake Naivasha to see the rose nurseries and breeders for themselves. “What struck me was that the working conditions are really good. Kenyans work throughout the company, from the pickers to the top biologists who use technical language that I don’t understand.”
The fact that women are well integrated in all layers of the companies was a pleasant surprise for the mayor: “Dutch floriculture is really a man’s world, but gender diversity is not an issue at all in Kenya.”
Unethical practices
Doesn’t that all sound too good to be true? After all, this same sector has been the subject of fierce debate for years because of its unethical practices: from environmental pollution and labor exploitation to large-scale tax evasion via the Cayman Islands.
Oude Kotte looks serious at the suggestion that the companies tricked him during his working visit. “I am a cynic by nature,” he says. “Also in this case. I came to Kenya and I expected to find bad working conditions with all the intense stories in my head. During my visits I also went unaccompanied into the villages where the employees live and there I heard that people are simply very grateful.”
That Kenya is struggling with extreme inequality, especially between the black and white population and also in the flower industry, Oude Kotte waves away. “Of course people in higher positions earn more, but I think the balance in the Kenyan rose industry is very good. I am really impressed with what this sector means for Kenya’s economy.”
In any case, what is certain is that the Kenyan rose industry provides work for hundreds of thousands of Kenyans and 1.4 percent of the country’s gross national product takes care.
Oude Kotte thinks that the insights he gained during the visit will give him something to hold on to when he returns to his post in Aalsmeer. After all, as mayor of ‘the flower village of the Netherlands’, he is in daily conversation with the Dutch owners of the companies he visited in Kenya. “I can now think much better about the interests of those companies, and with more knowledge of the facts I can talk about the technical developments that can improve the sector.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on June 12, 2023.