This confirms INTERPOM | PRIMEURS’s unique status as the most specialised indoor trade fair where the whole chain is represented, from growers to processing and marketing. This year’s event promises to offer a complete overview of the market for everyone who is eager to keep up with the latest developments and new products in the sector.
INTERPOM | PRIMEURS virtually fully booked
INTERPOM | PRIMEURS just goes on growing and it is also becoming distinctly more international. To date, 250 exhibitors from 13 different countries have registered to take part and the total stand area is 12% larger than in 2012. Virtually all stands available have been booked.
INTERPOM | PRIMEURS 2014 has taken over all 6 exhibition halls at Kortrijk Xpo and guarantees to offer a complete and above all sharply focused range of products and services for all professionals in the potato, vegetable and fruit sector: growers, contractors, processors, packers, buyers and traders of fresh and processed potatoes, fruit and vegetables from all corners of Europe – and increasingly, from other continents as well. The last edition of INTERPOM | PRIMEURS clocked up a total of 17 678 visitors (+25.7% on 2010) from 36 countries worldwide. This year too, the organizers expect a massive turnout of visitors.
‘Together for Sustainable Growth’ is the theme of the event - a stimulus for strategic sustainability thinking throughout the chain
A large number of projects have been set up in the potato and vegetable sector around ‘sustainability’. This is crucial if we want to provide good quality, tasty products for the next generation.
The organizers of INTERPOM | PRIMEURS are aiming to raise awareness of what sustainable growth entails by presenting concrete case studies of companies in the sector. Under the banner of the event’s theme of ‘together for sustainable growth’, exhibitors can present what their company has done with respect to one or more of the 3 pillars of sustainability: ‘People, Planet & Profit’.
These companies’ projects will be incorporated in a ‘sustainability route’ on the exhibition floor, underlining the importance of new insights and innovations to ensure sustainable growth in the sector. Walking this route will undoubtedly yield a wealth of inspiration for your own projects.
Inno Potato Award: Spotlight on growers’ own innovations
The third edition of the Inno Potato Award is a competition designed to reward the introduction of innovations in agricultural businesses. For their colleagues in the sector, three Flemish and three Walloon potato growers present the innovations they have developed and applied in their own enterprises.
The names of the winners and their projects will be announced at the end of October on www.innopotato.be. The professional jury has already awarded 50% of the total number of marks to be given, and visitors at INTERPOM | PRIMEURS will decide the remaining 50% during the first two days of the event.
Prizes will be presented in Hall 6 at Kortrijk Xpo at 12pm on Tuesday 25 November, in the presence of the regional Ministers of Agriculture.
Seminars on promotion campaigns for potatoes & equivalence of quality control systems
Generic promotion of potatoesBoth in Flanders and Wallonia, the potato sector has built up extensive experience of promoting fresh potatoes on the domestic market and as an export. Promotional campaigns are set up in conjunction with Vlam and Apaq-W to stimulate potato consumption among consumers in general. Vlam and Apaq-W will be presenting a seminar detailing how these campaigns are set up and the concrete results they have yielded. The British Potato Council, the British equivalent of Vlam / Apaq-W, will also present its own campaign and the impact it has had.
In addition, the new Belgian campaign for the promotion of processed potatoes will also be unveiled. Belgian potato processors have recently established themselves as the largest exporters of frozen chips in the world: Belgian potato products are reaching more and more customers in all continents. Real ‘Belgian chips’ can be distinguished from similar products from other producers on the basis of taste, all-round enjoyment and authenticity and this will be the basis of the new promotional campaign: ‘Belgian potato products from the land of the potato chip’.
Date and venue: Monday 24 November 2014 from 14 to 15:30 hrs in Kortrijk Xpo Meeting Center (entrance via Hall 6).
Seminar on the equivalence of quality control systems for potato, vegetable and fruit growers
For more than a decade, the Belgian horticultural sector has been deploying its Vegaplan, a quality system for food and plant safety and environmental protection that is recognised by both the authorities and users. A striking feature is the ‘bottom-up’ approach whereby the primary sector works together with purchasers to develop the system further. In 2014 the Vegaplan standard expanded to include sustainability and integrated pest management (IPM). Certification under the Vegaplan thus became a pioneer in guaranteeing sustainability and health safety in the growing and processing of fruit and vegetables.
But potatoes and vegetables move beyond national frontiers and this is why our quality control system and those of our main neighbours have to be interchangeable. Consequently, the Dutch Food Safety Certificate for Potatoes and Arable Farming, the German QS and the Belgian Vegaplan are all recognised as equivalent. Structural consultation has been launched between the partners to this end.
An international seminar on how this international cooperation should evolve will be held on Monday 24 November 2014 at 9.30 am in the Kortrijk Meeting Centre adjacent to the exhibition premises.
Date and venue: Monday 24 November 2014 from 9:30hrs to 10:30hrs in Kortrijk Xpo Meeting Center (entrance via Hall 6).
Dynamic meeting platform for a growth market
With its home base in Kortrijk (Xpo), INTERPOM | PRIMEURS is held in the heart of a dynamic and expanding potato, vegetable and fruit market. This is the perfect place to make new contacts and reinforce links with colleagues and suppliers in Belgium and abroad, to exchange ideas and share information in a sector with a rosy future. Note the date in your diary straight away!
INTERPOM PRIMEURS is an initiative of Belgapom, the official trade association of the Belgian potato growers and processors. The practical organisation is in the capable hands of Kortrijk Xpo.
