About 36,000 visitors from 43 countries were present last week to visit the 1403 exhibitors of the IPM Essen. The jubilee fair existed for 40 years. The fair organization shares that compared to other years, the fair audience has become a lot more international - which might also be a tool to draw attention away from the numbers, as the trade show was visibly smaller than the first post-pandemic edition.
The number of visitors also declined with approximately 10 percent - although according to the organizers, the percentage of trade fair visitors with purchasing authority also increased from 66 percent in 2023 to 71 percent in 2024. Who does the math?
So, for those enthusiastic about numbers - the 2023 edition welcomed 1,338 exhibitors, and this year, the organizers wrote down a number of 1,403 exhibiting companies. Why did the show feel slightly smaller? One of the reasons can be the country pavilions: the Danish pavilion, for example, included many smaller stands, whereas these were previously exhibited independently. Then there are the returns of the Asian country pavilions: now the travel limitations are done, countries like Korea and China were welcomed back on the trade show. Also, the Indian and Sri Lanka pavilions returned for the first time after the pandemic with a strong number of coco exporting companies.
More important than these numbers is that if you are in the green business, the IPM Essen is still the place to be. At this trade show, one can get a taste of the market as a whole. Everything and everyone breathes "sustainability," and so it is still bursting with sustainable innovations, sustainable solutions, sustainable products, etc. Within that, of course, what has always been happening is happening: people are breeding and propagating and producing and marketing flowers and plants and are happy to come here to show it off. Traditionally, numerous awards are presented, and people also come to meet that "world" of "potential buyers," who are perhaps nowhere as centered as here.
Click here for the photo report of the technical suppliers.
Click here for the photo report of the floricultural exhibitors.