iBusiness, 2010, 2, 382-388
doi:10.4236/ib.2010.24050 Published Online December 2010 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ib)
How to Develop Chinese Flower Auction Markets:
Results from a Comparative Analysis
Kaida Qin, Xiaoli Jiang, Baojian Yang
College of Management and Economics, Kunming University of Science & Technology, Kunming, China.
Received August 24th, 2010; revised October 11th, 2010; accepted November 21st, 2010.
ABSTRACT
For the vast majority of floriculture business, the auction is the best way to realize an assortment of flowers with as
broad a scope as possible, produced across the world, and available for market price. FloraHolland is the largest and
successful flower auction market in the world and approximately 44 million cut flowers and 4.8 million houseplants and
garden plants are traded daily. But the operation of Chinese flower auction markets is not so successful that some re-
searchers have concluded that the auction method doesn’t suit to Chinese practice. This paper compares operational
goals and performances of FloraHolland with Kunming, International Flower Auction Market (KIFA), which are two
typical flower auction markets in the two countries. Finally, the paper gives five crucial advices for developing Chinese
flower auction markets: transit of service strategies, cultivation of participants' network, establishing standardization,
clever mechanism design and avoiding some factors impairing successful auction, and improving on operational per-
formance continuously. Auction method will have a bright perspective in Chinese flowers trade in the future.
Keywords: Operations Strategy, Chinese Flower Auction Markets, Auctions
1. Introduction
At present, the main transaction mode in China is com-
petitor deal. Higher transaction costs and lower effi-
ciency, insufficient market information and unjust trans-
action price are competitor deal’s main weakness, which
restrict the development of agricultural circulation and
agricultural industrialization. Compared with competitor
deal mode, the auction market can result in significant
savings for both sellers and buyers. Savings are made by
reducing transaction costs, increasing the circle of poten-
tial customers as well as by improving the search-and-
find capabilities for all members concerned [1]. Elec-
tronic auctioning in particular is a rapidly expanding
application [2]. The additional benefit of the auction is
the matching of demand and supply at the 'best price' at
one specific point in time. The advantages, however,
must be weighed up against lower switching costs for
auction participants [3]. And with these good reasons, for
the vast majority of floriculture business the auction is
the World Trade Center: a better way to realize an as-
sortment of flowers with as broad a scope as possible,
produced across the world, and available for market price
reflecting the supply and demand in a short time. The
auction provides a hugely diverse selection of trade
companies with equally diverse quantities of flowers and
plants.
The Netherlands is the international crossroads for
commercial trade in flowers and plants. As the largest
producers of flowers, plants and tree nursery products,
the Netherlands processes more than fifty percent of the
international trade. On 1 Jan. 2008, Bloemenveiling
Aalsmeer and the former FloraHolland merged into one
company, under the name FloraHolland. FloraHolland is
the largest and successful flower auction in the world,
through which approximately 44 million cut flowers and
4.8 million houseplants and garden plants are traded
daily. FloraHolland is market leader and key player in
the international floriculture sector.
China is one of the biggest countries for production
and sales in flowers and plants. Yunnan is the largest
center of greenhouse horticulture in china and provides
more than fifty percent of the domestic production for
China. In Yunnan province there are approximately
16000 growers and almost 6000 wholesales companies
and exporters [4,5]. Kunming International Flower Auc-
tion Market (KIFA) is the only normally operational
flower auction market in China, through which each day
The paper is supported by the provincial application foundation o
f
Yunnan under grant 2009ZC019M

How to Develop Chinese Flower Auction Markets: Results from a Comparative Analysis 383
approximately 1.2 million cut flowers are sold to domes-
tic and international market. For KIFA, Nov. 2007 was a
month full of positive developments with new opera-
tional process, inner logistics and information system of
the organization, which resulted in transaction capacity
from 300 thousands to 4000 thousands daily. The KIFA
continues to invest in strengthening the markets and in-
creasing gains in efficiencies throughout the chain of
production, supply and sales.
However, some researchers have concluded that the
auction doesn’t suit to Chinese fresh agricultural prod-
uct’s trade because of unsuccessful operation. In despite
of improving on operational performance, there are still
huge gaps between FloralHolland and KIFA. In this pa-
per we compare operational goals and performance of
FloraHolland with KIFA, which are two typical flower
auction markets in two countries. We also analyze some
reasons for those gaps between these two auction mar-
kets. Finally, some crucial factors are presented for de-
veloping Chinese flower auction market in the future.
The remainder of this article is structured as follows:
First we briefly review the related literature on flower
auction. Section 3 compares operational goals of Flora-
Holland with KIFA and analyzes some reasons for these
gaps. In Section 4, we compare key figures 2007 of
FloraHolland with 2008 of KIFA and analyze the differ-
ences of operational performances between two auction
markets. In Section 5, we give five operational strategy’s
emphasis for developing Chinese flower markets. Sec-
tion 6 ends with conclusions and implications for re-
search and practice.
2. Literature Review on Flower Auction
Prior research abroad on developing flower auction typi-
cally emphasized on its function and transaction price.
Heezen and Baets [6] discussed functions of the Dutch
Flower Auction on the view of organizational structure.
More researches on flower auction have discussed price
discovery mechanisms. A central argument of these arti-
cles was that flower auction would improve communica-
tion searches, monitoring and information-sorting capa-
bilities, reduce transaction costs and allow purchasers to
take advantage of production economics available in
markets. Bakos [7] argued that auction marketplaces
could reduce the search costs that buyers must incur to
acquire information about seller prices and product of-
ferings. The lowered search costs allow buyers to look at
more product offerings and make it difficult for sellers to
sustain high prices. Koppius et al. [3] compared screen
auctioning and physical auction. They reckoned that
screen auctioning entailed a decrease in information
about flower quality compared to the physical product
representation and might be a partial explanation for re-
duced prices in electronic markets.
A central argument of Chinese research was consider-
ing adaptability of implementing agricultural product
auction method in China from the macroeconomic per-
spective. Zhu Xin-Kai [8] considered that the auction
method doesn’t suit to Chinese practice in terms of gov-
ernment malfunction, market mechanism faultiness and
lower-level agency institution. Kou Ping-Jun and Lu
Feng-Jun [9] argued that it must be careful to put agri-
cultural product auction methods in practice because of
some limitations of social condition and history. Li
Da-Sheng and Zhang Guang-Hui [10] discussed some
technical economic issues about agricultural product
auction and characterized that auction method was the
direction about reform and development of agricultural
product currency systems. However, it is the fact that
almost all of Chinese fresh agricultural product auction
markets had bad financial position over the past years.
KIFA was the same status before Nov. 2007. After then
new business model, which was designed by Qin Kai-Da,
Yang Bao-Jian and et al., was successfully introduced
into KIFA. In this paper, however, we emphasize on how
to develop Chinese flower auction markets through com-
parative analysis.
3. Operational Goals’ Comparison and
Analysis
Having operated for over a hundred years, FloraHolland
has developed a mature vision and mission: In a market
that is characterized by upscaling and internationalization,
FlorHolland wants to maintain and increase its strong
market position. By offering the best and broadest assort-
ment, it wishes to tie (international) commerce flows to
the marketplaces. In addition, it offers its members the
best sales opportunities at lowest possible costs. Begin
with the vision and mission, FloraHolland formulates its
operational goals. KIFA, established in 2002, got a great
success after the introduction of FloraHolland’s opera-
tional mode. But there are great differences in organiza-
tional goals between them, as shown in Subsection 3.1.
3.1. Operational Goals’ Comparison
According to FloraHolland, it divides objectives and
ambitions into seven indexes: best pricing at lowest pos-
sible costs, growth of supply, broadening product range,
optimal logistical services, e-business, sound financial
position and limiting labor costs where possible. For best
pricing at lowest possible costs, the market needs to con-
tinuously decrease transaction costs and offer added
value for membership. Strengthening supply network
will improve control capacity to market, which is called
growth of supply. Another issue is to help suppliers to
find market for new product and help buyers conven-

How to Develop Chinese Flower Auction Markets: Results from a Comparative Analysis 384
iently to buy all of products at the same market, it needs
broadening product range. All of products may distribute
to all of world, so optimal logistics service is very im-
portant. In the information age, e-business can make
buyers and growers trade their products more efficiently
at a lower cost. The operational performance is the
premise for auction market existing, so sound financial
position and limiting labor costs where possible is crucial
to market. Table 1 shows differences between FloraHol-
land and KIFA for objectives and ambitions in 2009.
From this table we can find that there exist huge gaps
between two markets. Some macro-economic environ-
ments and policies, such as market mechanisms, tradi-
tional trade methods, social conditions, and et al., may
result in these gaps. But we give more emphasis on the
differences of organizational operation model. Subsec-
tion 3.2 analyzes these gaps.
3.2 Analysis of Operational Goals’ Gaps
Operational goals’ gaps may root in the following:
1) Organization structure. FloraHolland is a coopera-
tive composed of approximately 5400 growers. This
means it is not an intermediary with independent inter-
ests. All activities in FloraHolland are to promote its
members’ products. Therefore, the goals designed from
the members’ interest are norm and fair. The structure
has proven to guarantee a stable, broad and international
supply as well as ensure the best pricing process. In the
contrast, the stockholders of KIFA are from third-party
investors. What it considers first is the commission. By
continually updating, fostering and re-engineering auc-
tion method, KIFA has begun to become a crucial hub
for buyers, suppliers and logistic stakeholders in China.
2) Transaction service. FloraHolland can provide dif-
ferent transaction services: selling at clock, sales through
FloraHolland Connect (image auctioning and remote
buying), cooperative sales, and direct sales. Selling at
clock and sales through FloraHolland connect is main
dealing mode in trade, although some growers’ groups
find the right price using FloraHolland Connect’s ser-
vices in their direct sales. The limitation of clock auction
is that the selling price is very volatile, considering dif-
ferent lots of the same producer or different lots of dif-
ferent producers [3]. In KIFA it can only deal with clock
transaction, and at present it has provided ‘best price’ at
lowest possible costs for both buyers and growers in
China.
3) Electronic information systems and e-business.
Buyers and growers may more efficiently and conven-
iently trade their products at FloraHolland. Using the
internet, growers up to one hundred percent of the supply
and buyers all over the world may purchase their prod-
ucts at one of FloraHolland’s 39 auction clocks. But now
KIFA’s information systems only meet the needs of
clock transaction. Buyers must be physically present in
the auction hall.
4) Stability and reliability of supply. Keeping growers
loyal to the cooperative is an important aim of FloraHol-
land. It commits supply to the cooperative through value
adding services for members at rates and under terms
that are more favorable for members than for non-
members. A growing part of and Product & Market Ser-
vices (PMD) and FloraHolland Connect’s services is
custom advice. Large-scale production is another way to
ensure the steady supply. Moreover, the flowers auc-
tioned in FloraHoolland are not only limited to products
Table 1. Objectives and ambitions in 2009.
Issue FloraHolland’s Goals KIFA’s Goals
Best pricing at lowest
possible costs
Offer added value for membership. Reliable information on
product quality: increasing BI (Reliability Index).
Competitive pricing and rates above average
appeal to buyers and suppliers.
Growth of supply More than 95% of Dutch product sold through FloraHolland.
Growth in supply of import flowers equal to or greater than
growth in production of flowers outside the Netherlands.
Improving batch size to 180 units. More than
80% of some categories sold through KIFA.
Growth in turnover exceeds 10% at least.
Broadening product range Virtually all new flower and plant varieties introduced in
Europe available at FloraHolland within 6 months.
Strengthening patent categories management.
Inducing new categories.
Optimal logistical services Chain standardization through uniform auction trolley, 1
Danish trolley balance, financial settlement, standardized
delivery form.
Building collecting center in main planting
area, decreasing supplier's logistics costs.
E-business EAB to 100% of supply. Further development of virtual
marketplace. MyFloraHolland.com to be made broader and
deeper. Further develop reliable product information.
Every supplier and buyer can get their detail
transaction information through internet. The
public can get transaction information in gen-
eral.
Sound financial position Pre-tax result of € 10 million. Solvency at least 20% and
risk-bearing equity at least 40% of balance sheet total.
Commission result of ￥ 35 million. Solvency
ten percent of the total balance.
Limit labor costs where
possible
Illness-related absence down (5.2%). Personnel reduction of
90 FTEs in 3 years.
The improvement of total labor costs doesn't
exceed 10%.

How to Develop Chinese Flower Auction Markets: Results from a Comparative Analysis 385
in 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 posi-
tion in the world’s leading areas for greenhouse horti-
culture 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 estab-
lished 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 dis-
tribution at FloraHolland. Due to the restriction of exter-
nal environments, KIFA now applies itself to establish
collecting center in main planting area to decrease sup-
plier’s logistics costs due to scale economies and re-de-
sign internal logistics distribution mode to improve allo-
cation 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 agri-
cultural production in China, KIFA is now hammering at
own intellectual property right of cut flowers.
4. Operational Performances’ Comparison
and Analysis
Because 2008 was the first year of operating in new
business model for KIFA and we can just get figures
2007 of FloraHolland, this paper use FloraHolland’s fig-
ures 2007 and KIFA’s figures 2008 for operational per-
formances’ comparison. In fact, key figures 2008 for
FloraHolland are almost the same as 2007 except for
operational result. Due to revenue being approximately
the same, an increase of charges, and extra costs for
merging, the operational result of FloraHolland decrease
by 50.5%.
4.1. Comparison and Analysis of Basic Indexes
The past two years were turbulent because of financial
crisis. Although sales of flowers and plants were gener-
ally not very sensitive to economic recessions, growth
market shrank as a result of currency problems. Flora-
Holland is also striving to support its clients and mem-
bers do business optimally in the current difficult cir-
cumstances. 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 mil-
lion. The increase can be attributed to a 3.8% positive
price trend and an increase in volume of 1% (see Table
2). 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 ven-
tures, 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 (see Table 2). The number of
suppliers and trades increased by 16% and 20% indi-
vidually, 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 transac-
tions per day increased by 62% and the number of em-
ployees increased by 31%, it resulted in 60% increase in
productivity in KIFA. 2008 was crucial and successful
done one for KIFA, including operationally, commer-
cially and financially.
However, lack of trading location (only 1 location) is
a limitation to increasing the product supply. Consider-
ing 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 com-
mission rate in KIFA is 10.11% out of annual turnover,
8.65%greater than the commission rate in FloraHolland.

How to Develop Chinese Flower Auction Markets: Results from a Comparative Analysis 386
Table 2. Comparision of basic indexes between floraholland and kifa.
FloraHolland’s figures KIFA’s figures
Item
2007 Growth 2008 Growth
Num. of locations 6 - 1 -
Num. of auction halls 12 - 1 -
Num. of Auction Clocks 39 - 3 -
Num. of suppliers 9,633 –4.23% 5,290 15.91%
Num. of traders(buyers) 5,600 –0.69% 785 19.85%
Num. of employees 4,593 –0.46% 127 30.93%
Num. of processed trolleys 8,163,819 - 355,979 -
Avg. num. of transactions pd 115,982 0.74% 6,322 62.25%
Annual turnover € 3,892,377,734 4.40% ￥162,567,764 52.82%
Commission fee € 56,800,000 0.40% ￥16,473,225 52.99%
Product category Covering almost all types of cut flowers and potted plants Certain kinds of cut flowers
Such a high commission is one of the factors that buy-
ers and suppliers won’t choose the auction as their
transaction mode.
4.2. Comparison and Analysis of Key Figures
The sales of floriculture products for FloraHolland were a
great success in 2007. Cut flowers, indoor plants and out-
door plants increased 1.74%, 8.78% and 9.54% individu-
ally (see Table 3). 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 (RB) has grown enor-
mously 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 in-
door plants sold by connection is higher than by auction,
which is different fact with the conclusion of Koppius et al.
(2004). 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 profit-
able 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 phe-
nomenon 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 dif-
ficult task.
5. Operations Strategies for Developing Chinese
Flower Auction Markets
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 opera-
tional 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, in-
formation 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 (including remote buying or bidding, direct sales,
and agent sales), 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 pos-

How to Develop Chinese Flower Auction Markets: Results from a Comparative Analysis 387
Table 3. Floraholland’s key figures 2007 and kifa’s key figures 2008.
Item Revenue Revenue pd Units Units pd Avg. Price
FloraHolland 2007
Total Turnover € 4,063,495,188 €16,253,981 - - -
Cut flowers € 2,497,112,508 € 9,988,450 11,005,090,382 44,020,362 € 0.2269
Indoor plants € 1,268,720,500 € 5,074,882 831,800,074 3,327,200 € 1.5253
Outdoor plants € 297,662,180 € 1,190,649 391,328,824 1,565,315 € 0.7606
Sold via
Cut flowers € 2,497,112,508 € 9,988,450 11,005,090,382 44,020,362 € 0.2269
Auction clocks € 2,140,565,953 € 8,562,264 9,375,452,681 37,501,811 € 0.2283
Connect(mediation) € 356,544,685 € 1,426,179 1,629,637,701 6,518,551 € 0.2188
Indoor plants € 1,268,720,500 € 5,074,882 831,800,074 3,327,200 € 1.5253
Auction clocks € 444,185,187 € 1,776,741 390,232,402 1,560,930 € 1.1383
Connect(mediation) € 824,535,313 € 3,298,141 441,567,672 1,766,271 € 1.8673
Outdoor plants € 297,662,180 € 1,190,649 391,328,824 1,565,315 € 0.7606
Auction clocks € 123,803,638 € 495,215 208,774,931 835,100 € 0.5930
Connect(mediation) € 173,858,542 € 695,434 182,553,893 730,216 € 0.9524
KIFA 2008 ￥162,567,764 ￥461,840 333,826,689 948,371 ￥0.487
sible 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 predomi-
nantly 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 tradi-
tional firsthand market, the auction market can provide
uniform quality standard. Product quality is a high prior-
ity for auction market. The auction organization would
offer the opportunity to more rapidly achieve standardi-
zation in the chain of production and supply. Doing this
could greatly decrease the intermediate links and im-
prove 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 fac-
tors 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 par-
ticipants to participate, and ensure the integrity of the
process. Some other factors are more important for Chi-
nese 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.
Our experiences in auction practice teach that the well
financial result is crucial to auction organizations. The
measurements must be brought into auction organiza-
tion’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 auc-
tioning, online sales systems, and direct sales, all of these
new business models should be put into use through
technology innovation.
6. Conclusions
The paper presents operation strategies for developing
Chinese flower auction markets through the compari-
son FloraHolland with KIFA. Since November 2007, it
has led to the enormous change for KIFA’s revenue.
Despite the proclaimed huge potential of auction mar-
kets for Chinese fresh agricultural circulation in the
future and controversy with regards to whether auction
method suits to Chinese practice, little is known about
how to develop Chinese flower auction markets. We
contributed to this debate by comparing two auction
markets. Chinese flower auction organizations must
pay more attentions to its operational performance, not
just concern about macro economic environments and
policies. They will find that auction method will have
a bright perspective in Chinese flower’s trade in the

How to Develop Chinese Flower Auction Markets: Results from a Comparative Analysis 388
future.
7. Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge cooperation from
Kunming International Flower Auction Market (KIFA).
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