Globalism: Fieragricola opens up to new markets

The presence of operators from Africa and Central-Eastern Europe characterized the 2016 edition of the Verona show, which pays special attention to business-to-business meetings and prospects on the African continent. The collaboration between the trade show organization, FederUnacoma and ICE Agenzia is strategic for the development of business relations with foreign operators

The urgency of internationalization pushes most businesses to develop marketing strategies towards new countries that can accept their offerings and where they can consolidate already acquired market positions. Increasingly, small and medium-sized Italian companies seek opportunities for trade exchanges and meetings that could lead to the discovery of new contacts and to developing existing ones. Hence the need to strengthen the concept of “trade show”, no longer understood as mere exhibition of sector-specific production, but also as nerve centre of conferences and seminars on common issues or outlook of emerging markets, and especially as prime hubs of the networks between industry professionals. The beating heart of trade shows, and the measure of the validity of an event seems to be, nowadays, precisely the ability to attract foreign operators from all over the world, as well as the ability to structure trade talks within the trade show system. Precisely on this path, this year Fieragricola has chosen to focus on the internationalization of the show. Just consider the campaign that aims to make the event a place “where relationships grow”, building the space devoted to foreign professionals looking to the example of EIMA International, the leading trade show of this sector in Italy, both in number of exhibitors and in visitors from abroad. Thanks to the collaboration between FederUnacoma and ICE-Agenzia, Fieragricola hosted professionals from Angola, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Mozambique, Poland, Romania, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine. The B2B meetings were held in a dedicated area on February 3 and 4, and recorded the presence of 62 exhibiting companies for a total of 826 meetings. To support the companies, representatives of SACE and SIMEST were also present, to provide assistance and additional information on their tools to help companies in relation with the countries involved. The presence of a Cuban delegation, organized by ICE-Agenzia in partnership with MISE and SACE, further marked the “international” profile of the event. The participation of Cuban operators, as a first follow-up, follows the missions of July and October for the agri-food project in preparation of a feasibility study for a model farm in Cuba, represented a significant opportunity to learn all about the primacy of high-quality Italian technology. On February 5, with the aim of monitoring the emerging markets, there was a seminar on Africa, organized by VeronaFiere in collaboration with ICE-Agenzia, divided into two parts: the first was dedicated to presenting the opportunities in North Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa; the second was reserved for participating delegations and companies that were able to engage in more specific dialogues to deepen their mutual interests. The foreign focal point of the trade show has certainly helped the success of an event that opens itself to winning models and is preparing to become an additional space of convergence between business cultures and visions that come from all over the world.