BIOMASS
7.-11.4. 2024

One of the three largest agricultural shows in Europe which was first held in Brno just 20 years ago was opened in the Rotunda of Hall A. This year's international trade fair complex of TECHAGRO, ANIMAL VETEX, SILVA REGINA and BIOMASS is the largest in its history. Thirteen awards were presented during the opening to the best exhibits and two awards to the leading personalities in the field.

It the beginning, all present were welcomed by the CEO of the organizer, Brno Exhibition Centre, Mr. Jiří Kuliš, according to whom this is the trade fair event of the year. "This year’s edition is record-breaking in all of the traditional parameters of the fair and I trust the same will also apply to the attendance. I can say that exhibits are everywhere, even on the grass, which means we have exceeded the capacity of the Brno Exhibition Centre at these fairs," said Jiří Kuliš and thanked all partners, professional unions and associations for their help in preparing this extremely successful year. The opening speech was given by the Minister of Agriculture Marian Jurečka, who stated that this occasion was marked with great honour. "The first time I was here as a thirteen year old was in 1994 and I was lucky that I did not miss any of the previous years. TECHAGRO is one of the largest events in the agricultural sector every two years, and I would be very happy if the record number of exhibitors and record area was complemented by a record number of visitors and if they managed to arrange and conclude a record number of commercial contracts. TECHAGRO serves also to people working in agriculture as an opportunity to meet each other, to talk, to maintain existing friendships and further develop the agrarian sector through this event," said the minister, and finally wished all exhibitors and visitors to enjoy their days in Brno and to spend the days usefully and beneficially for them and the whole agricultural sector.

President of the Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic Miroslav Toman pointed out that these trade fairs are among the three largest agricultural events in Europe. "It is a meeting not only for farmers, but also for hunters, engineers, veterinarians and all who operate in the countryside, who are taking care of it, who care about it and develop it for the future. I am very glad that this exhibition presents innovations and modernizations, all the more since we have the money distribution period ahead of us under the Rural Development Programme. We try to achieve a situation where much of that money - circa 30 percent - was allocated just for modernization and innovation because we want agriculture to go further ahead and Czech farmers to be better off, for people to have quality food and rural areas to develop further. If agriculture thrives, it will also be bale to perform the functions beside production, which are required of it," said the president of the Agrarian Chamber.

Chairman of the Agricultural Association of the Czech Republic Martin Pýcha stated in his speech that our agriculture is in good condition and the trade fair shows that the Czech Republic can produce not just cars, but also agricultural and forestry equipment. "There are companies that not only assemble, but also develop and produce cutting-edge agricultural technology. Already the previous edition was a record, the same situation was managed this year and I am confident that this year will contain a record number of both exhibitors and visitors," said Martin Pýcha, wishing a successful trade fair and another record-breaking year in two years‘ time.

The opening ceremony included the presentation of awards in the competitions for the best exhibits of all four trade fairs. Eighty-seven exhibits competed for the Grand Prix this year. The results of the competition are as follows:

Grand Prix Techagro

• CLAAS EQ 200 CMATIC Gear - Exhibitor Agrall zemědělská technika, a.s.
• Tractor M110GX - Exhibitor BONAS, s.r.o.
• Modular seeder Farmet Falcon 6 - Exhibitor FARMET, a.s.
• HARDI DynamicFluid4 - a new system of dose regulation - Exhibitor UNIMARCO, a.s.
• AutoCalibrate - automatic equipment calibration for measuring KRONE BiG X cutter yield - joint exhibition of Krone machinery importers
• Optical Sortex Z+ sorter - Exhibitor Bühler AG
• Concept of automatic cattle feeding Lely Vector - Exhibitor AGRO-partner, s.r.o.
• Automatic feed line TRIOMATIC T40 - Exhibitor HZT Technik - servis, a.s.
• APRIM caraway seed variety - Exhibitor AGRITEC, výzkum, šlechtění a služby, s.r.o.

Grand Prix Silva Regina

• Spaltfix K-600 Vario – Exhibitor DŘEVO - PRODUKT SV, spol. s r.o.
• HarMonit-Telematic harvester production monitoring system - Exhibitor Merimex s.r.o.

Grand Prix Animal Vetex

• Fram-bolus – Exhibitor NutriVet s.r.o.

Grand Prix BIOMASS

• ECO HK 30 kW – Exhibitor DŘEVO - PRODUKT SV, spol. s r.o.

Beside the prizes for the best exhibits, two special awards were also presented. On this occasion, the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic traditionally honours the most significant personalities who have contributed to the development of agriculture. This year, the Board of Directors decided to grant a Commemorative Certificate of Merit for mechanization of Czech agriculture to Ass. Prof. Ing. Adolf Rybka, Csc., who has been associate professor of technology and mechanization of crop production and head of the department of agricultural machinery Agricultural Faculty of the Czech Technical University in Prague for 26 years. The Award of the Brno Exhibition Centre for long-term cooperation and support of the international agricultural fairs was presented to senator Jan Veleba, who until recently served as president of the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic.

Thirteenth SILVA REGINA started

Hall Z with its impressive dome changed into a forest temple for five days and directly in its heart, on the central stage, the SILVA REGINA trade fair opening ceremony took place, attended by distinguished guests.

Everyone was invited to the opening venue by the typical sound of horns, but it was still quite difficult to get to the stage on time because like the whole exhibition centre, the hall was bursting at the seams under the onslaught of visitors from the first day. "Although Sunday should be a day of rest, from the perspective of trade fair organizers and exhibitors there is nothing more one could ask for than such a beautiful day like today, when the exhibition centre is full of visitors," commented the Minister of Agriculture Marian Jurečka in his opening speech. He emphasized that the complex of fairs, which SILVA REGINA has been part for a long time, is the largest event in the last two years, not only for agriculture but also for forestry. On this occasion he informed the forestry public that temporary period in the key enterprise Lesy ČR ends on 14 April, when the new CEO takes up his post and the situation will thus be stabilized also for the woodworking industry.

Senator and Chairman of the Czech-Moravian Hunting Union Jaroslav Palas greeted the trade fair participants on behalf of the organization that brings together approximately one hundred thousand hunters in the Czech Republic. He invited all present to visit the stand of this hunting organization and at the same time wished everyone to enjoy this beautiful exhibition as much as possible. On behalf of all the organizers, everyone was welcomed by the CEO of the Brno Exhibition Centre Jiří Kuliš. He highlighted the very good participation of this year and thanked everyone who supported the successful SILVA REGINA fair, especially Jaroslav Pospíšil from SILVAJAGD association and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests of the Czech Republic as sponsors. The stage of the opening ceremony also hosted the speech of the representing Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Forestry Martin Žižka, Dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology of the Mendel University in Brno Petr Horáček, Director of the Šumava National Park Jiří Mánek and Lesy ČR production director Pavel Indra.

French horns fanfare accompanied the traditional conclusion of the ceremony – awarding of personalities of Czech forestry and hunting, proposed by the forestry management section of the Ministry of Agriculture. Recognition of Merit in forest care and significant contribution to the Czech forestry was presented to Miroslav Sloup who received it from the hands of the Minister of Agriculture for his long active work in forestry management. The Recognition of Merit in forest care and significant contribution to Czech hunting wen to Jan Hamřík for his lifetime achievements in hunting.