Alkemade International B.V.

OUR HISTORY

1997: Alkemade International B.V was founded in 1997 by Maarten Alkemade, together with his wife Claudia, who at that moment was an independent designer of floral arrangements.

Initially, Maarten’s brother Peter was part time active in the company, but soon that became full time when he also became shareholder. The first activities consisted of importing flowers from Colombia and Ecuador, done from a home office and a rented processing area at the premises of J.P. Hogewoning.

1998-2001: soon an office was rented in Uithoorn (NL) and at the turn of the century an own processing area was put into operation at the flower auction in Aalsmeer. The close cooperation with the firm J.P. Hogewoning expanded, Alkemade imported flowers and took care of handling, Hogewoning sold flowers to exporting companies located at the various auctions in the Netherlands. In South America, a new agent was appointed.

2004: a new processing area was hired at the flower auction in Aalsmeer. Besides importing and selling of flowers, the company now also began with ‘handling’, processing flowers sent by various growers to make them ready for auctioning, amongst other products large lots of Gypsophila were sent from Ecuador by sea freight.

2009-2019: again a new and larger establishment was hired, where the headquarters still are today. For lack of space a second establishment was taken in use in 2012. The amount of handling was expanded, and with that the arsenal of growers that became customer, from countries as Israel, and continents as Europe and Africa.