In alternate years to Parasitec in Paris, the organisers, PC Media publishers of the French trade magazine, N&Pi, stage an away event. The 2019 destination was the Hungarian capital, Budapest or more precisely Hall B of the Hungexpo, which is the largest exhibition centre in that country. The event ran over two days, Thursday 9 and Friday 10 May. Whilst with 35 exhibitors the exhibition was small compared to its big brother in Paris, most exhibitors were happy with the quality of visitors and felt that a central European event was worthwhile.
Budapest is a great city break destination with plenty of historic interest, good restaurants and, of course, one of Europe’s great rivers, the Danube, running through its heart. No wonder then that the organisers chose to hold this event ahead of a weekend offering international visitors the opportunity to stay on to sample the delights of this lovely city. No such luxury for your Pest reporters though as we had to dash back on a Friday teatime flight!
Official opening
The event was opened by Dr Szilvia Deim, Head of the Chemical Safety Department at the Hungarian National Public Health Centre. During her opening speech she referred to implementation of the Biocidal Products Directive and stressed the importance of sharing science throughout Europe. She encouraged the industry to develop products and techniques for managing pests, particularly in relation to food safety and public health.
Visitor numbers
Official certified figures indicate that they were 798 visitors over the two days. A total of 394 visitors were Hungarian, but there were plenty of international visitors, many from the surrounding central European countries with 48 Romanians, 25 Czech and 19 Polish visitors recorded. Finland, France, the Ukraine, Croatia, Pakistan, the UK and the UAE were all represented.
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BL Group and Spray Team from Italy hadAmong the exhibitors Bayer and Syngenta were notable by their absence, with BASF the only global multi-national attending. There was a strong Italian contingent: Bleu Line Group & Spray Team, Colkim, Ekommerce, InPest (GEA), Martignani, Orma and OSD Ecotech.
Flying the flag for the UK were 1env Solutions, PestWest and Russell IPM. Both PestWest and Russell have been active in the central European market for a number of years. Relative newcomers, 1env, were there to promote the company’s manufacturing capability, rather than their distribution activities, for which they are better known at home.
One of the biggest and most popular stands was, unsurprisingly, the Bá¡bolna Bio one. Hungary is the company’s home market and in addition to its prominent display on day one the company also hosted a special reception and presentation for its suppliers, distributors and major customers. There were six other Hungarian companies.
New to us from Germany was Biogents, a company that specialises in mosquito traps and especially Asian Tiger Mosquito traps – their presence was perhaps influenced by the accompanying seminar programme where mosquitoes and invasive species were high on the agenda. Also new to us was the Provecta product from ICB Pharma in Poland.
The USA was represented by AP&G Catchmaster and, interestingly, Orkin who reported plenty of interest among potential franchisees in central and eastern European counties.
Other exhibitors came from Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland, Korea and the Ukraine.
Would a one-day event be better?
After a slow start visitor numbers picked up and the event was particularly busy from 10.30 through to 15.30 on the first day. The general feeling amongst the exhibitors was that the quality of enquiries was good. Day two was generally much quieter. Official opening hours were until 19.00 on day one and 18.00 on day two. In our opinion (and the opinion of many exhibitors) this is too long. Indeed whilst a two-day event sounds more prestigious and maybe allows the organisers to charge a higher rate for the space, it seems to us that all the business could easily have been done in one focused day.
The venue itself was perfectly adequate with plenty of space between the displays and both refreshements and seating available within the hall itself. Finding the way in was a little challenging and some better signing would have helped. Apart from the Expohotel on site, however, the district around the Hungexpo had nothing to offer visitors nor exhibtors. No restaurants, bars or cafes.
In summary
This was a decent event held in a part of Europe where professionalism in pest control is developing rapidly and one which does not have a regular international trade show. However, the timing could have been better esepcially for Hungarian PCOs as there had been two internal Hungarian events just a few weeks earlier in April. Also, for many pest professionals, May is a particularly busy time. That said, the quality of visitors was good as was their geographical spread.
