New Interpoma China expo to Take Place in Weihai, Shandong

With an apple production outcome of 38.5 million tons a year and an acreage of 2.3 million, China is the largest apple producing country in the world. Still, these vast amounts of fruit are largely grown on small scale orchards with little machinery or technology, which offers great business opportunities for companies working in this sector.

The Fiera Bolzano Exhibition Center with its international trade show Interpoma in Bolzano has a world renowned know-how when it comes to the cultivation, storage and marketing of the fruit of Adam and Eve, and is therefore organizing the first Interpoma event in the Chinese province of Shandong. Shandong is the most important apple production area in China with a harvest of 9.3 million tons of apples a year. But over 90% of all orchards still lack protection against hail, birds or frost, less than 20% of them have fertigation facitites and the degree of mechanization still lies under 30%. Interpoma China Congress & Exhibition is meant to be a platform for international companies from the apple industry that would like to grab the opportunitiy to enter the Chinese market.

Interpoma China Congress & Exhibition not only offers exhibiting possibilities in the modern exhibition center of Weihai, but also an international congress featuring renowned speakers from all over the world, organized with the help of numerous partners such as the Fruit Tree and Tea Leaf Workstation of Weihai, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the China Chamber of International Commerce, the Weihai government and the local Agricultural Bureau.

Additionally, exhibitors of Interpoma China Congress & Exhibition will have the chance to participate in the so called “Interpoma China Tours”, which will take them out into Chinese apple orchards and processing facilities and give them the possibility to get a first impression of the actual state of China’s apple industry.

For this exact reason - that is to explore the challenges and opportunities of the Chinese apple industry - the Fiera Bolzano Exhibition Center organized with great success a study trip to China in October 2016. “The trip to Shandong Province was very interesting and useful, thanks to the professional organisation Interpoma is famous for. The Chinese market offers great business opportunities for the sector”, affirms Florian Schröder, travel participant from the company Wildbiene & Partner AG in Switzerland. “I’m glad that I had the chance to participate in this trip and that I was able to see the Chinese world of apple production for myself. I’m confident that I established some important business relationships with future clients, and that in the future I’ll be selling our hail protection systems in China.”, says also Philipp Kulmer from the Austrian company Frustar, who participated as well.

With the completion of the study trip, a first step into the Chinese apple market has been successfully taken. The “edition zero” of Interpoma China Congress & Exhibition is going to be the first milestone towards the same goal.

Photos: International Press Office of "Interpoma China"