Gardening market, a cultural phenomenon
Landscaping is becoming an increasingly stable element of architectural design and the management of open spaces, both public and private. The industry that produces specific machines and equipment has the task of making the work easier and stimulating demand with new types of products. The role of EIMA Green in the sector's exhibition landscape
The positive trend in sales of gardening machines in 2018 (+3.2%) and the forecasts for 2019 in line with the levels of the previous year confirm the growth trend of the Italian market recorded in recent years, and seem to be a indicator of its potential. “At the root of the positive trend of our market, which seems not to have been affected by the more or less favourable economic conditions of the general economy of the country and which continues also in the 2018-2019 two-year period characterized by great economic uncertainty - explained Comagarden President Franco Novello at the press conference held in Bologna on May 21st - two factors must be considered, the first of a climatic nature, the second of a cultural nature”. “Landscaping achieves a concept of healthiness and quality of life that takes on a strategic importance and that can have remarkable developments - said Novello - and a cultural attitude more attentive to the “green factor” can generate increasingly high managerial and design standards, developing more focused professionalism, so as to feed a growing demand for technologies that the gardening industry must be able to offer both at a hobby level and at a professional level”. Although it is still difficult to quantify the development that mechanization for gardening will have in our country, it is nevertheless possible to foresee a gradual alignment with the more mature markets (see for example in Europe the British one), markets on which Italian industry is present with a wide range of products. The mission of the machinery and gardening equipment and landscaping industry is therefore to create mechanical equipment capable of satisfying the needs of an expanding and potentially still very receptive market; but it is also to create new markets, stimulating a demand that otherwise would not have emerged. “The development of electric and particularly battery-powered machines and equipment has not only made easier some operations that could previously be performed only with traditional propulsion vehicles - underlined the President of Comagarden - but it has stimulated a new market with the public of individuals and professionals, attracted by the novelty and better disposed towards mechanical equipment that seems to offer simpler methods of use and maintenance”. While it is true that the gardening market has the possibility for further development, it must be said that the trade exhibitions take on an increasingly important role, since they are the tool that stimulates the market and gradually raises the standards of technology and quality. “Comagarden works with this aim - stated Novello - since it does not limit itself to providing the services to companies that are typical of representative bodies, but it also operates as promoter and organizer, through FederUnacoma surl, of exhibitions such as, first of all, EIMA Green”. In an exhibition landscape that offers important events, such as the GIE+EXPO exhibition in Louisville or the Galabau in Nuremberg, the EIMA Green Show (which takes place within EIMA International) is nonetheless competitive. The number of exhibiting companies in the gardening sector has in fact grown steadily, reaching in the last edition (November 2018) a total of about 300, covering an area of about 14 thousand square metres, with an audience - for EIMA International overall - which has reached the record level of 318 thousand visitors.
