Who supplies the Netherlands' cut flowers: Kenya first, and the four-year picture behind the auction

The 2024 table, as the Netherlands reports it

In 2024 the Netherlands imported USD 1,175.4 million of fresh cut flowers, 174.7 million kilograms. By partner, as reported by the Netherlands to UN Comtrade under the single fresh-cut-flower line:

Source: UN Comtrade via WITS, Netherlands imports of 060310 (fresh cut flowers and buds, HS 1988/92 nomenclature), 2024, gross imports as reported by the Netherlands; read 26 September 2026. Shares and USD per kg are our divisions of the published values and quantities; the per-kg figure averages every genus, grade and length an origin ships and is not a price.

What the table says. Kenya is the largest origin by value and by weight, and by a wide margin. Ecuador, second by value, ships less than half Kenya's weight at a value per kilogram roughly sixty per cent higher — the large-headed rose flown at a high freight cost. Ethiopia ships nearly half as much weight as Kenya at almost the same value per kilogram, which is the origin whose product most resembles Kenya's in the Dutch statistics. Kenya beside the origins it is measured against →

The four-year picture

Same source, 2021 to 2024, Dutch-reported, USD million rounded by us from the published USD thousand; shares as published for 2021 to 2023 and derived for 2024.

Kenya has held roughly a third of the Dutch market by value in each of the four years. Beneath it the order changed: Ethiopia overtook Ecuador for second place in 2022 and Ecuador took it back in 2023 and widened the gap in 2024, its value rising by a third in a year. What the series does not say is why, and this site does not supply a reason. The 2021 quantities in the source are not comparable with the later years — the world total is recorded at 323.7 million kilograms against 174.8 million the following year, with Kenya at 126.3 million — so this page shows weights for 2024 only.

Why the Dutch figure for Kenya is not Kenya's figure for the Netherlands

Kenya reports USD 290.1 million of cut-flower exports to the Netherlands in 2024; the Netherlands reports USD 375.6 million of imports from Kenya. The gap has the usual causes — the importer values goods with freight and insurance where the exporter values them at departure, the importer records the country of origin where the exporter may record the first destination, and the two services do not count the same calendar consignments — and neither figure is wrong. This page uses the Dutch figures because the question is the Dutch market. The exporter-side series, and the same gap on the British lane → Who supplies the United Kingdom, from the British side →

What this table cannot tell you

Where the flowers go next. A large part of what the Netherlands imports is re-exported through the auction and the Dutch importers — to Germany, France, the United Kingdom and beyond — so a Dutch import is not a Dutch sale. Which flowers. The series is the single fresh-cut-flower line; roses, carnations and fillers are not separated. Which importers. Trade statistics are by country. The auction route and the direct route → The Dutch border, KCB and the points of entry →

What to ask

• Are you buying Kenyan flowers at the auction, or from a Dutch importer, or direct? The Dutch import figure contains all three.
• What is the value per kilogram on your own quotations? The table gives the origin averages to measure a quotation against, not a price.
• Which origin's product does yours actually compete with on the clock? On these figures, Ethiopia's more than Ecuador's.