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The 30th anniversary AGROTICA Agricultural Machinery, Equipment & Supplies International Trade Fair reached its past glory, marking an impressive return, attracting 153,623 visitors from 1 to 4 February, an increase of 34.9% compared to the 2022 exhibition. This volume confirmed its momentum and why it is the largest sectoral event in Greece and the Balkans.
The images of the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre, which was absolutely packed, and of the visitors queuing up outside the gates from early in the morning, were indicative of the atmosphere of the four-day event. In fact, this year’s exhibition was the most international of recent years, as, in addition to the 49 countries represented at the exhibitor level, it welcomed more than 20,000 international visitors.
There was great satisfaction on the side of exhibitors with regard to the contacts they made and from the international character of the event. In fact, their feeling was that it was the best AGROTICA of recent years, both because of the large number of visitors, and, mainly, because of the deals made on the spot. After all, as was mentioned, the visitors received were targeted, prospective buyers.
At the same time, the people who visited AGROTICA had the opportunity to come into contact with new technology from around the world from the entire spectrum of rural entrepreneurship, and to select the solutions and equipment that interested them.
The 30th AGROTICA attracted 1804 exhibitors (direct and indirect) from 49 countries and covered more than 40,500 square meters of exhibition space. It also welcomed a total of 500 international trade visitors from 17 countries (individual Hosted Buyers and four groups from North Macedonia, Albania, and Bulgaria), as part of the hosted buyers programme.
Meanwhile, dozens of sold-out events enriched AGROTICA’s exhibition section, raising important issues related to the primary sector, especially the agricultural sector. Among them stood out AGROTICA’s 10th Panhellenic Conference, organised by the Department of Agriculture of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in partnership with TIF-HELEXPO on systemic approaches to the regeneration of agriculture and the countryside, the workshop on the cultivation of cannabis by TIF-HELEXPO and Alegre Growshop, and the event on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Agriculture 2.0 in collaboration with CERTH.
AGROTICA was held under the auspices of the Ministries of Rural Development & Food and the Interior (Macedonia-Thrace), and the Region of Central Macedonia, with the support of the Association of Manufacturers of Agricultural Machinery (EKAGEM), the Machinery Importers’ - Representatives’ Association (SEAM), and the Association of Fertiliser Producers and Traders (SPEL).
The Zero Waste Expo AGROTICA initiative was also implemented during the event.