「チューリップ詐欺」横行、咲くのは１％…オランダ首都の水上花市場

【ハーグＡＦＰ＝時事】オランダの首都アムステルダムの有名な水上花市場で販売されたチューリップの球根のうち、花が咲いたのは全体のわずか1％だったとする調査結果が15日に発表された。消費者に対するごまかしが常習的に行われていることが明らかになった。（写真は資料写真）
　調査はアムステルダム市とチューリップ農家らの委託で行われた。これによると、水上花市場から購入して栽培した１３６３個の球根のうち、実際に花が咲いたのは１４個だけだった。また、球根１袋につき、パッケージ通りの色の花を咲かせる球根がしばしば１個しかないことや、封入量が表示より少ないことなども判明した。
　オランダ球根生産者協会（ＫＡＶＢ）は、チューリップの球根販売において「消費者に対する詐欺が常態化していることが調査で明らかになった」と発表。ＫＡＶＢのルネ・ルクレア会長は、「大勢の観光客や日帰り旅行者がだまされている」とコメントした。
　水上花市場はアムステルダムでも指折りの観光地。１８６２年ごろ、花売りたちがアムステル川沿いに花を運んできたのが始まりとされる。
　ルクレア氏はチューリップについて、４００年前に初めてオスマン帝国から輸入されて以来「わが国の象徴となり、球根産業はオランダ経済の重要な担い手となってきた」と説明する一方、「チューリップの球根に関する詐欺は、過去２０年にわたって続く問題となっている」と述べた。
　チューリップは花を春に咲かせるため、北半球の場合８～１２月に球根が販売され、冬が始まる前に植えられる。
　アムステルダム市の広報はＡＦＰに対し、調査は今年の春に実施されたと明かした上で、「そもそも春にチューリップの球根を売っているのがおかしい。オランダのまともな園芸店なら、そんなことをしない」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/10/17-08:29）

Tourists are being ripped off at Amsterdam's famous flower market, with just one percent of all bulbs sold at the floating bazaar ever producing a blossom, investigators said Tuesday.
A probe commissioned by the Dutch capital's municipality and tulip growers also found that often only one flower resembled the pictures on the packaging like colour, and that there were fewer bulbs than advertised.
The probe showed that there is chronic deception of consumers, at the sale of tulip bulbs at the flower market, the Royal General Bulb Growers' Association (KAVB) said.
Millions of tourists and day-trippers are being duped, KAVB chairman Rene le Clercq said in a statement.
Amsterdam and the KAVB have now referred the matter to the Dutch consumer watchdog.
The Amsterdam flower market is one of the city's most famous landmarks and dates from around 1862, when flower sellers sailed their barges up the Amstel River and moored them in the Singel to sell their goods.
Its fame inspired the popular song Tulips from Amsterdam, best known for a 1958 version by British entertainer Max Bygraves.
Today the market comprises of a number of fixed barges with little greenhouses on top. Vendors not only sell tulip bulbs but also narcissus, snowdrops, carnations, violets, peonies and orchids.
But of 1,363 bulbs bought from the Singel and then planted, just 14 actually bloomed, the investigation said.
Investigators found a similar problem along the so-called flower bulb boulevard in Lisse, a bulb-field town south of Amsterdam where the famous Keukenhof gardens are also situated.
Since first imported from the Ottoman Empire 400 years ago, tulips have become our national symbol and the bulb industry a main player in the Dutch economy, said Le Clercq.
But the deception about the tulip bulbs is a problem that has been existing for the past 20 years, he added.
- 'Bad bulbs' -
The victims are often tourists, KAVB director Andre Hoogendijk said.
A tourist who buys a bad bulb is not likely to come back, he told Amsterdam's local AT5 news channel.
Vendors at the market told AT5 that complaints were known.
There are indeed stalls here that sell rubbish. That is to everyone's disadvantage, because it portrays the whole flower market in a bad light, one unidentified vendor said.
But a spokesperson for the City of Amsterdam said that all vendors were being investigated and that the results are shocking.
So to say that it is only a few stalls is not true, the spokesperson told AFP in an email.
The probe took place earlier in the year during springtime, the spokesperson said.
The issue is that you shouldn't even sell tulip bulbs during the spring. No decent florist shop in Holland does that.
Tulip bulbs should only be sold between August to December and planted before the start of the (northern hemisphere) winter, in order for the flowers to bloom in spring.