FloraHolland flower auction

We just left the largest flower auction in the world, located in Aalsmeer, which is about 20 minutes outside of Amsterdam and near Schiphol airport.  It's my fourth visit to this auction over the past 10 years or so, and each time I have visited, I've been amazed.  Last year, 11 billion cut flowers and 1.3 billion plants were sold through FloraHolland's 6 locations.  This auction is the largest, with approximately 670 acres of building space.  Flowers and plants arrive from 60 countries and are exported to 140 countries.

Here, this video shows the distribution of flowers that have already been auctioned.  Information about who bought the flowers is stored electronically.  The driver of the cart scans the bar code and retrieves the information about the buyer's location within the auction.

Something that I had never thought about was the expense of transporting cuts and plants through the auction.  We were informed that 40% to 60% of the product's cost was for transportation.  Clearly, there is interest in "sustainable" transport methods -- reducing the use of air freight and maximizing use of container sea transport.  We learned about their cold-chain management and the possibilities and obstacles that exist to make shipping improvements.  Is it "sustainable" to produce cut flowers in South America, ship to and sell them in the Netherlands, and then transport them to the buyer in North America?  The answer of course depends on your definition of sustainablity.  We certainly need flowers in our lives, I just wonder what can be done to streamline the production chain.