The Italian fresh produce sector is bracing itself for an almighty trade fair tussle next year as two new events join the calendar alongside present incumbent Macfrut, with all three aiming to provide what their constituency demands: greater international exposure for Italian fruit and vegetables.
Fruit Innovation, a new exhibition set to be part of packaging and technology fair Ipack-Ima in Milan next May, will hope to capitalise on the city’s status as the venue for Expo 2015 and has the backing of Italy’s national union of fruit and vegetable producer organisations Unaproa.
Meanwhile, Fruit Gourmet Expo, due to take place in Verona also in May, is aiming to take advantage of Italy’s excellent reputation among foodservice professionals by encouraging them to visit producers at its show.
Organised by Veronafiere and NCX Drahorad, the agency that represents Eurofruit’s parent company Market Intelligence Ltd in Italy, the exhibition will also include training workshops and cookery demonstrations.
The major challenge for all three events is to convince potential exhibitors and visitors that they can offer something demonstrably different to other events in Europe and indeed overseas.
Macfrut itself has recently conceded it needs a new strategy and is now targeting something of a renaissance after a worrying fall in interest in favour of other annual shows – most notably Madrid’s rival show Fruit Attraction and of course Fruit Logistica in Berlin.
Over the past few years, Macfrut’s challenge has increasingly been accessibility (its original home Cesena is far smaller and harder to reach than, say, Milan or Madrid) and the fact that the vast majority of its exhibitors – particularly the machinery and packaging specialists that traditionally helped make Cesena a magnet for trade visitors – are now also present in Berlin every February.
Its plan is to switch location – either to Bologna or Rimini – in order to make it easier for visitors to attend, while retaining a conference in Cesena on the previous day.
“We have set up a two-year development project which provides for a 50 per cent increase in total visitors and a doubling of foreign visitors,” explains Renzo Piraccini, president of Macfrut organiser Cesena Fiera, in a recent interview with Italiafruit News. “We want to harness the full potential of the supply chain.”
Ahead of its relaunch, Macfrut has established a committee of 28 Italian trade representatives that will help boost the event’s potential.
“The intention is not to intervene on the choice of location, which is up to the shareholders, but to identify policy proposals and content to make the event a more business-like and more international meeting,” Piraccini explains.
“We want to create a highly innovative project on a grand level, the objective being to make what [at present] is the only Italian fresh produce meeting more international in comparison with other projects still being built.”
Guido Corbella, head of Ipack-Ima, feels Fruit Innovation will offer just that. “Fruit Innovation is the considered answer to demand expressed by the major players in the fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain for a joint event with real international importance,” he explains.
“We have confidence in the project. We are calm and motivated in the sense that we are able to give the Italian fruit and vegetable industry abd its business owners what they need and what they have asked us for.”
For Italy’s fresh produce companies, deciding which event is the right one for them could be a difficult task.
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