The second day is traditionally the busiest at Madrid's Fruit Attraction, and a lot of exhibitors said it was the busiest day ever but exhibitors in hall 1 said they saw less traffic, while other halls were busier but numbers seemed to drop off in the last hour. Many exhibitors said that the Madrid show was becoming the most important in Europe, due to the timing and the ever increasing visitor numbers.
The Greeks in hall 10 have had an excellent exhibition so far. The Greek pavilion was bigger than ever before at Fruit Attraction. Traffic was really good and a lot of kiwi exporters stated they were headed to a solid season, so the weather was not as big of an issue for them.
The Egyptians were very satisfied with the requests for their upcoming citrus season, with demand mostly coming from Europe and Asia.
The move for the Holland pavilion to hall 6 was satisfactory to many exhibitors and as the norm, the Spanish halls were the busiest.
Opinions are divided about the Spanish start of the season. The tomato season has started with a shortage, but the supply of other fruit vegetables seems to be getting better. The Spanish mango season was extremely short and low production is also expected for avocados. There is a real consolidation going on in the Spanish citrus sector, with parties merging and others closing down. At the moment, the Spanish citrus supply is slow to get going.
Some Spanish exhibitors were pleased with the good quality of their visitors and others revealed that most probably they will not exhibit in Berlin next year as Fruit Attraction is becoming more important and interesting business wise.
The second day of the Madrid tradeshow saw some important developments in the Italian seed sector, starting with the official entry of Esasem into the Spanish market. The presence of Indian buyers, particularly interested in apples, and Asian trade visitors was also noted, in addition to buyers from the Netherlands, Germany and South Africa One southern Italian grower said that Fruit Attraction was an excellent platform to plan activities for the next strawberry season, which starts in about two months.
"We had a strong response from the South Americans, which is a very interesting market for us. Between Brazil and Argentina, where our seeds have shown their bio-reliability for the local soil, climatic and agronomic conditions, as well as for the markets," reported an Italian seed company manager.
There were a lot of satisfied faces at the Belgian Pavilion, this year saw the biggest attendance in exhibitors since the start of the trade show. Exhibitors are saying more and more that the trade show in Madrid is growing in interest as opposed to Fruit Logistica in Berlin, because it’s at a perfect time for the start of the top fruit season. This year especially there’s a lot of interest in Belgian apples, but mainly pears, from the visitors. With the change of location to a new hall there was a bit of anxiety as to whether people would be able to find them, but those worries proved to be unfounded.
The German delegation is definitely bigger than last year. Many companies are represented at the German pavilion in hall 8, organized by the BVEO. Overall, the exhibition is gaining ground among German companies. Many of them use the exhibition to both meet suppliers and export clients.
One of the highlights this year is the relaunch of the club pear Xenia, a cooperation by German and Dutch grower organizations. Furthermore, Fyffes is launching a new banana brand, called Trudi's.