European fruit growers and farmers meet at dual trade show

Experts from all the leading European fruit growing regions attended “Fruchtwelt Bodensee” over the weekend. The international fruit growers’ trade show ended on Sunday with a significant increase in visitor numbers and satisfied exhibitors. At the same time, “agrarwelt” celebrated its successful debut. A total of 16,142 farmers and fruit growers attended the two events and gathered information about innovative fruit varieties, cutting-edge harvesting and farming technology, and distillation equipment.
“Once again, Fruchtwelt Bodensee has shown that it is an important meeting place for the European fruit growing industry,” said Messe Friedrichshafen CEO Klaus Wellmann. This is also reflected in the high proportion of foreign visitors, which account for 17% of the attendance figures. Trade visitors came from a total of 23 countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, England, Poland and Slovenia. “Farmers, industry & retail representatives and researchers meet at this dual trade show and can directly exchange information about the latest developments,” said Wellmann.

For the first time, the international fruit growers’ trade fair Fruchtwelt Bodensee was held in conjunction with the new agrarwelt show: “We’re very satisfied with the debut. The theme of this trade show has enormous potential and we intend to further expand agrarwelt over the coming years. Thanks to a wide range of common topics, this show dovetails very well with Fruchtwelt Bodensee,” said Project Manager Petra Rathgeber. Many farmers took advantage of this combination and visited both events. “The agrarwelt show received an outstanding response from visitors and introduced farmers to new concepts, for instance, in the area of bioenergy,” said Manfred Ehrle, head of the local farmers’ association in Tettnang, Germany.

From 15 to 17 February, 2008, a total of 301 exhibitors displayed highly specialized products and services for fruit growers, distillers and farmers. “We received a lot of positive feedback. The exhibiting companies reported that they concluded excellent business deals, made new customer contacts and were delighted with the caliber of the trade visitors at the show,” explained Rathgeber. The extensive program of professional presentations was highly popular at both trade shows. More than 3,000 participants attended lectures given by expert speakers. The main focus was on topics like new harvesting techniques and innovative new varieties of apples and pears, the organic products boom and climate change. Additional areas of focus included the distillation and degustation seminars on Saturday and the farmers’ convention on Sunday, where Josef Moosbrugger, President of the Vorarlberg Farmers’ Association, talked about the international prospects for agriculture. “Visitors really appreciated the combination of a wide range of products and expert presentations,” said Messe Friedrichshafen CEO Klaus Wellmann. This was confirmed by the visitor survey: 86 percent of the respondents rated the two trade shows as “good” or “excellent”.

The fruit growers and farmers will meet again from 19 to 21 February 2010 at Fruchtwelt Bodensee and agrarwelt in Friedrichshafen.