Cutting Porter\u2019s last diamond: competitive and comparative (dis)advantages in the Dutch flower industry. Which lessons for Italian SMEs?

ISSN: 1971-890

GLOBAL FLORICULTURE INDUSTRY VALUE CHAIN. POSITION OF THE UKRAINIAN FIRMS IN THE FLORICULTURE BUSINESS.

Floriculture industry is very dynamic in its varieties and trade volumes demonstrating 6 to 9 % of annual growth. It gets also more and more diverse in terms of global actors. Now there are about 120 countries actively involved in the floriculture industry as global manufactures with the Netherlands as an epicentre of world flower production and distribution. In that respect, analysis of the floriculture industry in terms of global value chain changes is an interesting and relevant issue to address as it has gone through some global conversion and is still shifting in the direction of cost and production optimization. First aim of the research is to conduct an analysis of the main processes that shape the global value chain structure and functioning using an empirical illustration of the floriculture industry. The study provides insights on the industry’s key actors and processes from the point of production to the final consumption destination. However, further scope of the research is narrowed down to the analysis of the Dutch floriculture sector, as the main hub in the global floriculture industry value chain, and the investigation of the potted and garden plants chain, as it demonstrates considerable differences from the one of cut flowers. Another aim of the research is to proceed from the macro analysis of the global industry actors and global value chain to a micro level perspective in the empirical analysis that was done to analyse Ukraine as a consumption hub in the industry value chain

Dutch agricultural development and its importance to China

A brief description of the evolution of greenhouse horticulture in the Netherlands in the period 1950-2000, including a statistical review of areas, physical yield and labour productivity, and a qualitative review of technical and institutional development. The report first provides the story of a Dutch greenhouse vegetable grower. Furthermore, horticulture in the Yangtze Delta is positioned on the time axis from 1950-2000. Traditional horticulture and industrial horticulture in the Yangtze Delta show many technical similarities to Dutch greenhouse horticulture in 1960 and 1980, respectively. Finally, some recommendations for improving the institutional coherence in horticulture in the Yangtze Delta and for involving Dutch agribusiness are given

SamenMarkt®, a Proposal for Restoring Trust in the Horticultural Fresh Food Market by Using Multi-Agent System Technology

In the horticultural fresh food supply chain network in the Netherlands, a crisis is emerging. The market is out of balance and many growers are facing bankruptcy, in the period of 2011–2013, 50% of the growers were not able to pay interest and redemption. Trust between participants in the supply chain network has decreased. This chapter presents the currently not established and identifies design requirements for new systems to address this challenge and provide directions for possible improvement. As a result, this chapter introduces the concept of SamenMarkt®, a participatory system in which multi-agent system technology enables distributed price negotiation, distribution and communication between producers, retailers and consumers. A SWOT analysis of the concept of SamenMarkt® is provided together with a research and development plan in which simulation and emulation create the basis for stakeholder- and participant involvement in the design process of a distributed digital market place. Further research aims to study how SamenMarkt® can provide a solution space for the emerging global food crises. At present, we are using agent-based modelling to simulate the present market and scenarios. The next step will be to build the actual agent-based platform for real-time negotiations and business intelligence