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Flower war blooms as Dutch accuse Germans of flying ‘black tulips’ to Amsterdam

The Dutch government has accused German national airline Lufthansa of stealing a march on its international flower trade by arranging “illegal” flights across the Atlantic.

Lufthansa is alleged to have flown cut flowers from Colombia and Ecuador to Amsterdam via Puerto Rico. The Dutch say this breaches a deal which gives KLM a monopoly on direct flower exports from the South American nations.

Aviation minister Joop Atsma said the German airline was involved in “illegal operations” and plans to raise the matter with Berlin.

A spokesman for KLM said: “Lufthansa is violating the aviation treaty and fishing in our market.”

The German airline is accused of undermining the agreement by using Puerto Rico as a stopover destination in order to get around the ban on direct exports to the Netherlands.

The South American flowers are exportedfor sale at the Dutch flower auction centre in Aalsmeer and are worth more than €10 million a year to the trade.

Source: De Telegraaf: Duitsers piken tulpenvluchten

Photo by Shirley de Jong