Standardization helps Yunnan flowers sell well at home and abroad

Every year, more than six billion freshly cut flowers are sold out to the rest of the world from Dounan Flower Market in Kunming, capital city of southwest China’s Yunnan province. And in every minute, the market sells more than 20,000 flowers across Yunnan. Behind these numbers, it is the high quality of flowers and a high level of customers’ satisfaction. And it is the standardization that holds the key to controlling the quality. 

When you buy flowers in your daily life, usually you see whether the flowers are beautiful or not, fresh or not, big or small, long or short, before you make your final decisions. However, these are not, strictly speaking, the standards used in Dounan Flower Market, especially in its E-trade Center. It applies higher standards.

“As early as 2000, Dounan Flower Market became the first of its kind in China introducing the key index and concept of international freshly cut flower standards,” recalled Mr. Tian Yunhui, deputy general manager of the E-trade Center. Since then, the market has graded flowers according to their qualities.

Since January 1 of this year, the E-trade Center began to implement standard rules in harvesting, processing and wrapping up of flowers which boast the highest auction volumes. And it also specifies an index system covering the requirements of harvest and quality controls.

In the ready-for-auction area of the flower market, Mr. Liu Zhongxiang made notes quickly of where his chosen flowers were. “These flowers have gone through the standardized procedures and they have been graded. So I don’t have to spend a lot of time in checking just like I did in the past. It’s really time-saving,” he said, buyers only need to choose flowers and remember which shelves they were in, and then they can participate in the flower auction.

Li Fengjun has been in the flower wholesale for 15 years and a frequent buyer in the E-trade Center. According to Li, his flower business thrives because of the standardization of the industry. On the day he received our interview, Li bought flowers worth 5,000 yuan in less than one hour at the E-Trade Center. “I’m very satisfied,” he said.

Text by Wang Huan; Photos and videos by Li Wenjun