BioFach India together with India Organic goes to Kerala

India's most successful organic trade fair - BioFach India together with India Organic - will be held this year for the first time in the Adlux International Convention Centre in Kochi, the second-largest city in the south-west Indian state of Kerala. The change of venue also marks a change of date. The sixth of the events programmed by the youngest member of the BioFach family will be opening its gates from 6–8 November 2014, when visitors will once again be able to discover the country's wide range of organic products. The organisers, NürnbergMesse India and International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA), cite the efforts of the Kerala Government to change the entire state agricultural system over to organic production by 2016 as one of the main reasons for the move. Here, BioFach India together with India Organic provides an optimum networking platform and is able to provide new impulses. In parallel with the event, Kerala is hosting the Global Agro Business Meet congress with over 1,500 participants, which is focussing on the future of food processing. The tried and tested trade fair concept of BioFach India together with India Organic, consisting of a product exhibition and conference, is being retained. Around 170 (2013: 158) exhibitors and 7,500 visitors (2013: 7.491) are expected to attend. 
 
For Sonia Prashar, Managing Director of NürnbergMesse India, the move to Kochi is the right step: "Strategically, now is the ideal time for the move to a state which intends to have changed its entire agricultural system over to organic production in the near future. Within this process, BioFach India together with India Organic not only provides an ideal networking platform and promotes business opportunities; it also acts as a forum for discussions on important subjects such as education, career and culture. NürnbergMesse India would like to sincerely thank the Kerala Government for the confidence it has shown. I'm certain that both BioFach India together with India Organic as well as the state will benefit from this cooperation in the future", Prashar emphasises.
 

Manoj Menon, Executive Director ICCOA, also sees the move as a great opportunity. In the last three years, he said, BioFach India together with India Organic has helped the city of Bangalore become one of India's organic strongholds. Many exhibitors and players in the organic world see the same potential for other Indian states and cities. In addition, Kerala has excellent facilities for tourists and is India's largest spice market. 97 % of the pepper produced in India, for example, comes from Kerala. A large proportion of India's cocoa and coconut cultivation is also based here. These points, Menon continued, are further important reasons for moving the event to Kochi.
 

This year, visitors to BioFach India together with India will be able to enjoy the pavilions from the Indian states of Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh,Chhatisgarh, Sikkim, Nagaland, Kerala andKarnataka, which will be presenting the vast range of Indian organic products. In addition, there will be a stand run by the NationalHorticultureMission (NHM), which has been committed to the promotion of Indian horticulture, taking into account regional development strategies, since 2005.

For the third time, there will also be a customised trade visitors' trip – the international Buyers' Programme, alongside BioFach India together with India. Whether it's tea, coffee, herbs and spices, fruits, pulses, soya, coconut or organic cotton – India has plenty of organic raw materials. The aim of this year's Buyers' Programme is to bring the exhibiting organic companies from Kerala into contact with suitable buyers from all over the world. The tour participants will have the unique opportunity to experience the state's diverse organic raw materials at close quarters, to network with producers locally in the production plants and at the exhibition and to create business opportunities. Last year, buyers from Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Asia took part. The buyers' trip is organised by ICCOA in collaboration with the German journalist specialising in organic produce, Karin Heinze. Interested companies can obtain more information directly from Ms. Heinze. More information is available from BioFach India