They will take place from 30 September to 3 October and will bring together 290 exhibitors and around fifty parallel activities.
The Sant Miquel Agricultural Fair and Eurofruit, shows that will open their doors next Thursday with 290 exhibitors and some fifty parallel activities, will kick off the autumn fair season and begin the process of normalising fair activity in Lleida, as “they will become the first major Catalan event to return to format on site since the start of the pandemic”, according to Miquel Pueyo, mayor of Lleida and chairman of the board of the Lleida Fair Foundation. The 67th edition of the Sant Miquel Agricultural Fair (National Exhibition of Agricultural Machinery) and the 36th edition of Eurofruit (Professional Fair of Fruit Industry Suppliers) will take place from 30 September to 3 October at the fair facilities in Lleida and will offer a wide and varied exhibition covering 54,000 m2.
Pueyo, after pointing out that Sant Miquel and Eurofruit have become “the great economic event of the Lleida region”, said that one of the distinctive features of the agricultural event is “its vocation to innovate and act as a channel for disseminating new trends and advances in the agri-food sector, especially through the technical conferences and other parallel activities”. These conferences “respond to the concerns and interests of the sector and focus on current issues, such as the European strategy for the new CAP or climate change,” the mayor added.
The mayor highlighted some of the novelties of the fair, such as the new 5G Space, coordinated by the Lleida Chamber of Commerce, which will host presentations of projects in this field, start-up companies (newly created companies that market products or services through the intensive use of information and communication technologies), organisations and institutions that promote this innovative technology, etc.
The President of the Lleida Provincial Council, Joan Talarn, said that Sant Miquel and Eurofruit are the most important Catalan event in the agri-food sector and a showcase for Lleida’s economy, adding that the show responds to the Provincial Council’s approach of “achieving the economic transformation of the territory and committing to a green, circular and highly digitalised economy”. Talarn announced that the Lleida institution will present a new project at the fair, the web portal “Me encontrarás” (a meeting place for entrepreneurs, producers and consumers), as well as a video clip that aims to recognise entrepreneurs who have managed to move the economy forward despite the handicap of the pandemic.
For his part, Jaume Saltó, president of the Lleida Chamber of Commerce, clarified that the Sant Miquel Fair is a necessary platform to promote innovation and digital transformation in the agri-food sector, a platform where entrepreneurs and established companies present their innovations in the field of technology. “Lleida is a reference point in fruit and animal protein exports, but it also needs to become an exporter of technology related to the agri-food sector, and the Sant Miquel Fair is the best showcase for this whole technology sector,” he added.
Bernat Solé, delegate of the Government of Catalonia in Lleida, after stressing that “Lleida is a spearhead” in the recovery of fair normality thanks to the holding of the Sant Miquel Fair, said that this edition will become a reference in the fields of digitization and the search for systems of maximum efficiency.
In this regard, he announced that the event will host seven conferences on the annual technology transfer plan drawn up by the Government of Catalonia. The conferences will focus on: on-farm composting; climate change, biodiversity and irrigation; food misinformation (fake news); towards a circular bio-economy in Catalonia – BIT Congress 2022; the dilemma between energy sovereignty or food sovereignty; plant health (the role of ADVs in the new European scenario); and olives and nuts: aid from the new CAP and valorisation of natural resources.
The general manager of Fira de Lleida, Oriol Oró, recalled that, in order to guarantee the safety of visitors and exhibitors, the organisation has implemented an advanced Artificial Intelligence system which, using video cameras, monitors people entering and leaving the venue and automatically warns them in real time when the protocols of capacity, social distance, use of masks, etc. are not complied with.
In addition, various processes have been digitalised (visitor registration, obtaining tickets and online payment), security and cleaning teams have been reinforced, disinfection points have been created, air collection and ventilation systems have been improved, etc. The organisers estimate that the fairgrounds can simultaneously hold a maximum of 10,000 people.
On-site fairs, “irreplaceable”.
Oró has clarified that, according to the experience of trade fair organisers, the digitalisation of trade fairs can be a complement to the on-site part, but not a substitute for it, as the on-site meeting “means that, in a specific place and at a specific time, there is a congregation of people from different fields who generate all kinds of information and an interrelationship with customers and competitors that does not occur in the digital format”. The digital channel “has helped us to reach further than the in-person fair allows us (with streaming conferences, online trade missions, etc.), but today the latter is irreplaceable”, he concluded.
Another new feature of this edition is the expansion of the Automotive Area, which will have a surface area of 3,000 m2 and will host more than 300 vehicles, representing 90% of the brands marketed in Lleida.
The international nature of the fair will be well reflected in the presence of foreign exhibitors and in the virtual reverse mission of the agricultural sector with distributors and importers from 10 countries (Chile, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Dominican Republic, South Africa and Turkey).
The event has also scheduled almost 50 parallel activities, including technical seminars, conferences, presentations, drone demonstrations (in the field of precision agriculture), professional meetings and demonstrations of local products and foodstuffs.
The sectors present at the fair will include precision agriculture, agricultural machinery, equipment and services for agriculture and livestock, local products and food, packaging, nurseries, plant protection, industrial machinery, hail protection, auxiliary systems, irrigation, drones and automotive, among others.
It should be remembered that the fair is the setting for the Award for Technological Innovation and Safety in the Design of Agricultural Machinery and Agri-Food Industry Equipment, as well as the Agricultural Book Award and the Agricultural Technical Article Award.
Apart from its great interest for professionals in the countryside (farmers and livestock farmers), the double show offers many attractions for the general public, such as the sale of local products, the presence of spectacular agricultural equipment, drone exhibitions, the Automotive Fair or the catering offer, among others.
The fair will be open to the public from 9.30 am to 8 pm.
