Tetsuya Kawakami

　I wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Holland.

　I investigated in bulb grower’s companies until last week, as you may know in previous “Business report in Holland (12/05/2007)”
　I could check how our bulbs, which you will receive, are harvested and processed. It is very nice experience for me.
　In this time, I would like to report about ①specific work of growers in this year, ②the present situation of Dutch growers, harvesting and bulbs condition.

①By the influence of frost of －3℃～－4℃ in the middle of November, old stem of Oriental･OT at ground level didn’t die and still stay hard in bulbs during harvesting time, then many bulbs were harvested with old stem. So most of growers have to increase workers to remove old stems from bulbs.

②Oriental market in this year is still difficult, and 20～30% of growers cannot sell their bulbs about 20% yet. And also some growers gave up harvesting in a part of fields. Some grower’s company said, “About 20% of growers will not be able to continue next year.”

　Regarding the present harvest condition, some growers already finished harvesting and processing.
On the other hand, due to frost 2 weeks ago, some growers could not finish harvest before Christmas, because Polish workers went home and some bulbs still remain in fields. They will be harvested in this week after Christmas, and restart processing in the beginning of January.

　Generally oriental・OT bulbs are very firm, their inside sprout are not too high, and quality looks good.