The first edition of Freskon, the new fruit and vegetables exhibition that took place last week in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, “exceeded all expectations”, according to organisers TIF-Helexpo.
The event reportedly attracted 200 exhibitors and 4,155 visitors, 600 of them international, coming from more than 36 countries and including 120 buyers invited and hosted by TIF-Helexpo.
“There were over 2,500 business meetings held, with numerous Greek exhibitors noting that they had never achieved contacts of this calibre before, even at sector exhibitions held in Germany,” a press release stated.
The exhibition was widely regarded as a major positive for the country during one of its lowest periods, the debt crisis and the Russian embargo continuing to pose significant challenges.
Exhibitors spoke of the impact of the current financial crisis, including the arguably positive effect of separating the best companies from the worst, and the need to find alternative markets to Russia, especially for stonefruit.
Others focused on the potential of the East Asian market, with the country’s kiwifruit exporters continuing to target growth in mainland China.
The organisers said they saw the event as a “strategic link between Greek production of fresh fruit and vegetables and the international markets, major foreign retailers and supranational distribution networks”.
A special section of the exhibition dubbed FreshCon Market created the opportunity for Greek exhibitors to discuss areas of cooperation with 18 top international retail chains. In a separate hall, the first International Cherry Congress was held, attracting over 600 participants from around the world.
“This first major event demonstrated the enormous prospects of Freskon in the best possible way,” TIF-Helexpo stated. “After this year's valuable experience, the event will return even more dynamically in 2016.”
A full report on Freskon will appear in the June edition of Eurofruit.
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