A growing part of and Product & Market Services and FloraHolland Connect’s services is custom advice. Moreover, the flowers auctioned in FloraHoolland are not only limited to productsin Netherlands but also from Israel, Kenya, Colombia and etc. Whereas in KIFA, the flowers sold are mainly supplied by local growers. And growers can freely choose their dealing location and method, for example, many growers trade their products at Dounan Flower Market in wholesale method. In addition, small-scale production results in periodic intermittent supply. 5) Destination of sale. FloraHolland wants to maintain and reinforce FloraHolland’s position as the marketplace for European flower sales, maintaining its central position in the world’s leading areas for greenhouse horticulture is also its long development strategy. KIFA is one of biggest trade center in China, its buyers are almost from all of Chinese inner large-medium-scale cities. A small quantity of buyers is from Hongkong. Russia and Thailand sometimes take part in auction. 6) Logistics systems. FloraHolland has already established integrated systems for logistics, including inner logistical systems, logistical resources, and international logistical support. RFID, uniformed trolley resource, cool chain, potted-plant distribution, and air freight is being developed for supply and distribution chain from farm to auction market and from auction market to distribution at FloraHolland. Due to the restriction of external environments, KIFA now applies itself to establish collecting center in main planting area to decrease supplier’s logistics costs due to scale economies and re-design internal logistics distribution mode to improve allocation efficiency. 7) Standardization. The decoding standards of varieties, products, grades, and qualities have been built for many years at FloraHolland.
After merged in Jan. 2008, it will more rapidly achieve standardization in the whole chain of production and supply. FloraHolland have decided that all the trolleys, all the purchase and sales invoicing will be carried out the same standard for various locations and FloraHolland connect. Owing to standard scarcity of agricultural production in China, KIFA is now hammering at own intellectual property right of cut flowers. The past two years were turbulent because of financial crisis. Although sales of flowers and plants were generally not very sensitive to economic recessions,barley fodder system growth market shrank as a result of currency problems. FloraHolland is also striving to support its clients and members do business optimally in the current difficult circumstances. The number of suppliers and traders of FloraHolland did not grow in 2007. Turnover increased by 4.4%. This resulted in a total turnover of €3,892 million. The increase can be attributed to a 3.8% positive price trend and an increase in volume of 1% . Commission revenue just increased 0.4%, as a result of a reduced commission for the auction clock. The scale of suppliers and traders for FloraHolland has improved. These may be private companies and cooperative ventures, which operated as a major player in the market and were well placed to innovate. Number of employees of FloraHolland in 2007 deceased by 0.46%, at the same time, the productivity had 2.5% increase which ensured the volume increase. The year 2008 for China is a significant one because Peking Olympic Games was successfully held in Peking. So KIFA predicted sales, price and supply of cut flowers would have increased rapidly. But in fact sales, price and supply of cut flowers in China did not grow in 2008. Despite the difficult economic situation, 2008 ended with a hugely positive turnover for KIFA because of new business model. Annual turnover of KIFA increased by 53%, it resulted in a total of ￥163 million. The increase can be owed to an increase in volume 60%. Commission revenue increased by 53%, it resulted in a total of ￥16.4 million, which it is the first time that the revenue exceed the general costs . The number of suppliers and trades increased by 16% and 20% individually, as a result of the best price, the reliable quality, the decreased costs, the sufficient information and the increasing service level. The average number of transactions per day increased by 62% and the number of employees increased by 31%, it resulted in 60% increase in productivity in KIFA. 2008 was crucial and successful done one for KIFA, including operationally, commercially and financially.
However, lack of trading location is a limitation to increasing the product supply. Considering the product category, it is difficult for KIFA to meet the buyers’ requirement by auctioning certain kinds of cut flowers while the products sold in FloraHolland cover almost all types of flowers and pot plants. The commission fee is also a noteworthy point. The commission rate in KIFA is 10.11% out of annual turnover, 8.65%greater than the commission rate in FloraHolland. Such a high commission is one of the factors that buyers and suppliers won’t choose the auction as their transaction mode.The sales of floriculture products for FloraHolland were a great success in 2007. Cut flowers, indoor plants and outdoor plants increased 1.74%, 8.78% and 9.54% individually . Exports from the Netherlands grew by 4.4%, thanks to the growth in Eastern Europe, France, the United Kingdom and Ireland. One attentive trend in FloraHolland is that sales through by connect had a great increase by 11.4%. Remote buying has grown enormously in the past few years. Deals do not only buy in the auction room but also via an internet connection which means the location can be anywhere in the world. Another important fact is that the price of outdoor plants and indoor plants sold by connection is higher than by auction, which is different fact with the conclusion of Koppius et al. . From Table 3, we can also see that the revenue of selling indoor plants and outdoor plants is very large, about 38.5% out of total turnover. That means it is profitable not only through cut flower sales but also through indoor plants and outdoor plants sales. Although the sales of cut flowers for KIFA were a great increase in 2008, an important trend is that the ratio of bidding failure is increased. KIFA views this phenomenon in a positive sight. It means that the lower quality and outdated product should be washed out from the market. But on the other hand, it will depress the confidence of Chinese growers. Another difficulty for KIFA is that the batch size of cut flowers is also small at 180 units, at the same time, FloraHolland at 1800 units. Improving batch size of growers is a long-term and difficult task. Although auction is an old-fashioned deal method, it remains a strong selling instrument in foreign countries. Now FloraHolland is striving to intermediary services in direct transactions via the intermediary organization FloraHolland connect. But in China auction method emerged among some regions just in recent ten years, the cultivation of auction thought is a long-term process for growers and buyers.
Most of fresh agricultural auction markets in China were shutdown in past few years due to lower revenue. Through the comparison of operational goals and performances, we conclude that five operational strategy’s emphasis for developing Chinese flower auction markets as follows: 1) Transit of service strategies. Changing service thought is an important factor of Chinese flower auction markets. First of all, the auction market is not only the location for providing auction transaction, but an integral service provider for transaction, balance, logistics, information and direct sales. Second, providing customized service is crucial to keep participants loyal, so measures must be taken to decrease participants’ transaction costs to guarantee that growers and buyers choose auction as public platform for trade, such as providing various trade mode , excellent logistics and online payment. Finally, the auction market must be the knowledge center for participants. It can provide information on services and the very latest products, trends and sales concepts, so it can help participants to make their decisions. 2) Cultivation of participants’ network. Constructing participants’ network is a long-term and difficult process. The auction market must seek to achieve the highest possible price at the lowest possible expense for all members. The participants’ network is the best important assets for all of auction markets. As a result, it is very important to provide convenience, laborsaving, and happiness services for all members. An obvious trend is a growth in large scale flower and plant nurseries in China because of scale economies. The increases in scale take place predominantly through acquisition. The market may stimulate this and endeavor to increase the return because it is helpful to extend participants’ network. 3) Establishing standardization. Compared to traditional firsthand market, the auction market can provide uniform quality standard. Product quality is a high priority for auction market. The auction organization would offer the opportunity to more rapidly achieve standardization in the chain of production and supply. Doing this could greatly decrease the intermediate links and improve trading efficiency.
The standards of varieties, products, grades, and qualities are the first of all for Chinese auction market, which is the basis for well-doing operation. Owing to scarcity of fresh agricultural product standard, establishing standard is a difficult task for Chinese auction markets. 4) Clever mechanism design and avoiding some factors influencing successful auction. Clever mechanism designs are only very occasionally among the main keys to an auction’s success. Much more often, the keys are to keep the costs of bidding low, encourage the right participants to participate, hydroponic barley fodder system and ensure the integrity of the process. Some other factors are more important for Chinese auction market, such as setting right reservation price and commission rate, building clever disposal mechanism for lodge and bidding failure, and developing agent organizations for the small-medium growers and buyers. 5) Improving on operational performance continuously. The measurements must be brought into auction organization’s eyes, such as saving general costs for auction market, improving work efficiency, turnover, and service level, and increasing revenue and value added service. All these measurements require technology innovation continuously. Remote supply, remote buying, image auctioning, online sales systems, and direct sales, all of these new business models should be put into use through technology innovation. Rice is the most important cereal crop in the world and it is the primary source of food and calories for about half of mankind. More than 75% of the annual rice supply comes from 79 million hectares of irrigated paddy land. Irrigation is an important practice in agriculture, the competition for fresh water in the development of urbanization, industry, leisure, and agriculture causes the decline of fresh water for irrigation. Water scarcity is a severe environmental limitation to plant productivity. Drought induced loss in crop yield may exceeds loses from all other causes, since both the severity and duration of the stress are critical.
Stress has been define as “any environmental factor capable of inducing a potentially injurious strain in plants”. Water is a major constituent of tissue, a reagent in chemical reaction, a solvent for and mode of translocation for metabolites and minerals within plant and is essential for cell enlargement through increasing turgor pressure. With the occurrence of water deficits many of the physiological processes associated with growth are affected and under severe deficits, death of plants may result. The effect of water stress may vary with the variety, degree and duration of water stress and the growth stage of the rice crop. Water stress during vegetative stage reduces plant height, tiller number and leaf area. However, the effect during this stage varies with the severity of stress and age of the crop. Long duration varieties cause less yield damage than short duration varieties as long vegetative period could help the plant to recover when water stress is relieved. Leaf expansion during vegetative stage is very sensitive to water stress. Cell enlargement requires turgor to extend the cell wall and a gradient in water potential to bring water into the enlarging cell. Thus water stress decreases leaf area which reduces the intercepted solar radiation. Rice leaves in general have a very high transpiration rate thus under high radiation levels rice plant may suffer due to mid day wilting. Rice plant can transpire its potential rate even when soil moisture was around field capacity.