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Freskon, the 5th International Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Trade Show opens tomorrow, with 215 direct and indirect exhibitors from 16 countries, in comparison to 191 of the previous event, and 205 hosted buyers from 35 countries, of whom 130 are individual hosted buyers from 33 countries and 75 are hosted buyers through group participations from the Balkans.
The Trade Show covers an exhibition area of 12,500 square metres. In fact, approximately 2500 business meetings between representatives of Greek enterprises & producers and international hosted buyers have been scheduled. Exhibitors are coming from, among other places, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Argentina, Bulgaria, Italy, India, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Spain, Denmark, and Germany. Once again, this year Freskon will be a meeting place for producers, international retail groups, as well as domestic and international transporters of fresh fruit and vegetables, while also acting as a reference point for the fresh fruit and vegetable market in Southeastern Europe. The FreshCon Market is being organised in the framework of Freskon, focusing on connecting production to retail sales.
The main goal of FreshCon Market is to bring large supermarket chains into direct contact with professionals of the agricultural sector, creating ideal conditions for direct agreements. In fact, some of the largest supermarket chains in Europe will be present. This year Freskon will host Digital Greece Freskon Edition for the first time, with 13 startup companies present. This year’s event incorporates a number of side events, at which specialised subjects of the primary sector, the connection of agricultural production with trade, standardisation-packaging, extroversion, etc., will be presented and analysed. The International Peach Congress stands out among these, which will be held on 11 and 12 April, with the participation of renowned speakers from Greece and abroad. Both FreshCon Market and the International Peach Congress are being co-organised with ‘Froutonea’ magazine.
Freskon will last until 13 April and its opening hours are the following: Thursday 11 April and Friday 12 April 09:30-19:00, and Saturday 13 April 09:30-17:00. Press Conference “Greece deserves to be present in the vegetable markets of the whole world”, noted TIF-Helexpo CEO Mr Kyriakos Pozrikidis at the Freskon press conference today, while he focused on the importance of this year’s event for the sector, and he announced that eight of the hosted buyers are companies with a turnover of more than 300,000,000 Euros.
On his side, the publisher of ‘Froutonea’ magazine Mr Takis Orfanos stressed that the fresh fruit and vegetable sector needs an exhibition like Freskon, which, he noted, has established itself and will be here for years to come. He also expressed his concerns about the sector season, when taking into account weather instability and climate change. Lastly, the head organiser of Freskon Ms Tonia Nikolaidou underlined the contribution of the event to the growth of enterprises through the promotion programme, while she referred to Freskon’s extroversion through the Freskon Greece project.