by Eric J. BROOKS

 

 

 

 

The show's importance was highlighted by a visit from France's president, Francois Hollande. The French president toured SPACE's halls, shaking hands and chatting with livestock farmers and exhibitors. He then delivered a courageous keynote speech that tackled both French and international agribusiness concerns.

 

Promising to make, "agriculture and agribusiness an engine for growth," Hollande's speech ventured far beyond the political platitudes commonly found in most keynote statements. Stating that "I know of the structural difficulties [feed prices cause], which call for a rapid and durable response," he used SPACE to introduce a "programme that will include, among other things, the timing of payroll and banking support to individual farmers who are struggling," Details were announced on the following day by France's agriculture minister.

 

Speaking to the international community, Holland informed SPACE that, "I am pushing with heads of state and government for protection against [feed cost] volatility" by pressing world leaders for the creation of emergency feed crop reserves and an end to biofuel production.

 

Memorable as it was, Hollande's speech complimented SPACE's growing relevance but did not overshadow it. In all, nearly 1,300 exhibitors from 31 countries and at least 110,000 visitors attended the fair, including more than 10,000 foreign delegates from 66 countries. With five times more attendees than some of the largest US agribusiness fairs, it is tempting but incorrect to be impressed by SPACE's scale.

 

In truth, the event, despite SPACE's vast size, this event's real strength is its comprehensive breadth: Spanning all the major livestock lines, over a dozen exhibit halls featured everything from feed milling technology to crop harvesting machinery, animal supplements to livestock housings, environmental control systems to meat processing, hands-on livestock competitions to highly technical seminars, all at one event. This motivates industry stakeholder from both France and abroad to seize the cross supply chain synergies only such a broad forum can generate.

 

Having said that, this year's edition transcended a nasty challenge from the weather gods. Because its numerous exhibition halls are spread out over an outdoor area, heavy rain got SPACE off to a slow start on the first morning. Fortunately, the sun soon broke through the clouds. By mid afternoon, movement through many halls was slowed down by the sheer size of this year's crowd.

 

This was especially true in the halls showcasing feed making technology, natural animal health solutions, water treatment systems and livestock housings. Given the keynote's speech's concern about feed shortages and the recent bankruptcy of domestic poultry giant Doux, economic and ecological concerns were equally on the mind of participants. This is particularly true in France, where EU bans on antibiotic growth promoters adds to the cost pressures faced by livestock farms.

 

Compared to relatively more Spartan agribusiness events found in Asia and America, countless exhibitor stands were keynoted by epicurean sit down negotiations over food and wine. The general impression of this reviewer was that there seemed to be far more interacting and exploring of new opportunities than at most of the agribusiness events of comparable size.

 

Of course, along with its diversity of themed exhibition halls and numerous technical seminars, SPACE has always been defined by elaborate animal competitions. Amidst the above described mixing of business and pleasure, farmers showered bellowing cattle with bloated udders, fastidiously combing their tails in preparation for the afternoon's competition.

 

This year's competition focused on Limousine beef cattle, Holstein dairy cattle and Space did not disappoint. In all, over 800 breeds were represented, and you could see the anticipation of profitable breeding opportunities on the faces of award winning farmers.

 

Amidst all this synergy and dynamism, there was a drawback with regards to communications: Unlike fairs in China or East Asia, which offer electronic headsets for simultaneous translation into up to half a dozen languages, SPACE graciously offered individual interpreters. This worked fine at highly informative farm visits but not in its technical seminars, as it is not possible to conduct a technical seminar with several language interpreters translating at the same time a speaker is talking.

 

A similar communication gap occurred with regards to the president's keynote speech. It was postponed from 4:30pm to 5:30pm but the press centre announced this only in French. Your reviewer understands basic French but this was not communicated to many members of the foreign press. Later, When I asked press centre staff when they would have a copy of the prime minister's speech or if it would be translated into other languages, they were unable to answer either of these inquiries.

 

While 10% of SPACE's visitors are international, French agribusiness is highly influential and this proportion is destined to rise in the future. Increasingly reflecting world agribusiness concerns, SPACE is outgrowing its French roots. It is becoming an important event on the world agribusiness calendar and organizers need to take note of this fact.