The coding system within the floricultural sector has been revised under the name Linnaeus. This has resulted in agreements between the Dutch Flower Auctions and the trade organizations VGB (Association of Wholesale Trade in Horticultural Products) and HBAG (Dutch Agricultural Wholesale Board/ Flowers and Plants). These agreements are:

• Expanding the product codes from 5 to 7 positions so that there is more room for growth in the product range.
• The ability for suppliers and Dutch auctions to provide more product information with the products. This means trading partners will know more about what they are buying, especially remotely.
• The availability of the information in chain messages in several languages.
• Documenting the regulations regarding compulsory characteristics for auction batches in code lists.

There were three reasons for this. First, there was a need in the trade for more product information to be able to buy remotely. With the rise of electronic purchasing, many traders do not see the product before the time of the transaction. Adding more product information allows for a better, more specific description of the product. Obviously, the product information varies by product. To enable more specific information to be provided, it was decided that the number of product characteristics would be increased to six.

A second point was the product codes still available within the old system. The end was in sight due to rapid expansion of the product range.

The final argument was that standardization of product information contributes to a clear exchange of information in the chain. This allows chain parties to know what characteristics are provided in what positions. Every organization can now use this information in its own system.

The technical blueprint was created from Linnaeus. The technical blueprint describes the specific configuration of the new coding system. The technical blueprint can be downloaded here.