Interpom | Primeurs trade show for Potato and Vegetable Industry fully booked.

INTERPOM | PRIMEURS, the leading indoor trade fair for the entire potato, vegetable and fruit sector in Europe, will be held in Kortrijk Xpo (Belgium) from Sunday November 27 to Tuesday 29 November 2016.

Once again, the event has chalked up strong growth figures and with 310 exhibitors, all stand space available is already fully booked, weeks before the opening date. This year will be the largest edition ever, making it the biggest indoor potato trade fair in the world where the whole chain is represented, from growing to processing and marketing.

With another season of extremes due to bad weather conditions, INTERPOM | PRIMEURS 2016 will undoubtedly be the top hotspot to follow all the latest market developments, price trends and innovations. This 18^th edition is expected to attract no less than 20 000 visitors and focuses on the theme of sustainable growth through technological progress throughout the chain.

All stands fully booked

INTERPOM | PRIMEURS continues to grow and become more international each time round. This year, our event has clocked up growth both in the number of exhibitors and in the area of the exhibition floor: 310 exhibitors (+11.5%) from 15 countries and 1 320m2 extra stand area in comparison with 2014 (+8.2%). The event fills all 7 exhibition halls at Kortrijk Xpo, including the Rambla, the central axis between the halls.
 

INTERPOM PRIMEURS presents a very complete, specialised range of products, machines and services for the whole sector. The event is an important meeting place for growers, contractors, processors, packers, buyers and traders of fresh and processed potatoes, vegetables and fruit from all over Europe, and increasingly from other continents too. Here they meet their colleagues and suppliers from Belgium and abroad in a professional and welcoming atmosphere.

The last INTERPOM | PRIMEURS event signed off with 19 529 visitors (+10.5% compared with 2014) from 41 countries all over the world. This year, the organizers expect some 20 000 visitors.

Looking to the future in a highly volatile potato market

It is no secret for European potato professionals that the potato market is highly volatile. The statistics for the last five years illustrate this convincingly. But what has happened this year in much of the potato growing regions in Europe is unheard of – ‘du jamais vu’.

Weather conditions during the 2016-2017 season were extreme: a cold spring, extremely wet in May and June and then drought right through to mid-October meant that many potato crops were lost and that the quality and size of the crops from the remaining acreages was very variable. At the moment, potato harvesting is only now in full swing in many parts of the country, and harvesting is also late in neighbouring countries. In other words, there is still a lot of uncertainty about how this year’s potato crop will turn out, and it is already clear that it will be a far from ‘normal’ potato season.
 With the increased processing capacity in Europe and increasing demand from the world market, we need to produce more potatoes, now and in the years to come. This is the message we want to get over at INTERPOM | PRIMEURS 2016. There is room for expansion in the sector and the potato chain is keen to look to the future.

Technology Route & ‘Walk-in’ seminars on the theme of ‘Growing through precision technology’

The emphasis at the last INTERPOM PRIMEURS was on ‘sustainable growth’. This year we are focusing on precision technology and above all ‘Growing through precision technology’, the theme of the event. With the intelligent application of the technology available, precision farming can contribute to achieving a higher yield from the same input of energy and means.
 Just think of GPS guided tractors, digital field and planting maps, sensors in the soil and between different crops, drones and satellites for aerial observation or even from space, mechanization applications etc. In the processing and trading sectors too, the principle of ‘to measure is to know’ will lead to greater efficiency, lower wastage and therefore a higher yield.

The theme of the event ‘Growing through precision technology’ will be reflected in 3 ways on the exhibition floor:
 

• the ‘Technology Route’: this route highlights exhibitors presenting new ‘precision’ technology. This will enable visitors to discover the possibilities and potential growth offered by new technology in the form of machines and services presented by exhibitors linking in to this theme.


• the ‘Walk-in Seminars’ with moderator Drs. Ir. Jacques Van Outryve: short, walk-in seminars on Sunday and Monday on initiatives connected with precision technology in Belgium and abroad. After listening to a short 10-minute presentation, visitors can enter into discussion with the following specialists on the subject (in Dutch, French and English): Bruno Huyghebaert (CRA-W), Joost Wellens (ULg), Koen Mertens (ILVO), Marc Sneyders (BAYER), Nicole Viaene (ILVO) & Philip Burgess (AHDB Potato Council).
   
  

  Schedule of the ‘Walk-in Seminars'

  The seminars are free of charge for visitors and it is not necessary to register in advance.


• Presentation of the IPot project at the Belgapom stand: IPot is an innovative platform for increasing Belgian potato production sustainably. In the framework of this project, researchers from Flanders and Wallonia (VITO, CRA-W and ULg) together with potato traders and processors (via Belgapom) are setting up a web-based geoinformation platform on the basis of satellite images.
  
  All the data available in connection with potato growing will be brought together on this platform. In the long term, using this objective geoinformation should allow the potato sector to increase potato production in a sustainable manner.
  
  You can hear all about this project at the Belgapom stand #645 in Hall 6.

 Presentation of the Inno Potato Award 2016 on Tuesday 29 November in Hall 6

For the 4th time round, the Inno Potato Award will be presented for the best application of innovations in an agricultural enterprise. Flemish and Walloon potato growers, selected by a jury from the sector, will present the innovations they have developed to colleagues from the sector. The names of the winners and their projects will be announced in November on the website www.innopotato.be(In Dutch, French).

The professional jury has already allocated 50% of the total points and the remaining 50% will awarded by the visitors at INTERPOM | PRIMEURS on the first two opening days. The prizes will be presented on Tuesday 29 November at 13 hrs, in the presence of the regional ministers of agriculture, in Hall 6 at Kortrijk Xpo.
 
Weighing up how this season is progressing and looking ahead to the next

Based in Kortrijk (Xpo), our event is rooted in a dynamic and growing potato, fruit and vegetable market. There will be plenty of discussions on the stands and in the aisles about the current market and how the season is progressing.

But traditionally, INTERPOM | PRIMEURS also signals the start of the new season, as the place where new contacts are made and existing contacts are strengthened with colleagues and suppliers in Belgium and abroad, a place where valuable information is exchanged. And that’s something people really look forward to!

INTERPOM PRIMEURS is an initiative of Belgapom, the official trade association of the Belgian potato sector (trade and processing). The practical organization is in the capable hands of Kortrijk Xpo.