Silva Regina
7.-11.4. 2024

The group of agricultural and forestry equipment trade fairs was record-breaking in all its parameters. The indoor as well as outdoor exhibition spaces at the Brno Exhibition Centre were used up to the full capacity, the exhibition stands even occupied lawns and other unusual exhibition spaces. The number of visitors surpassed all expectations and soared up to 120 thousand people over five days. Over the first three months of the year, a total of 340,000 people thus came to visit the Exhibition Centre in Brno. An absolute record was recorded on Sunday, 30th March, when the exhibition centre gates were crossed by as much as 38,034 visitors making it the highest number in all trade fairs organised in Brno over the past 10 years. Just during the first day, the number of arriving visitors was higher than during the entire first edition of the fair back in 1994. „This year’s Techagro has definitively confirmed its supra-regional Central European importance, being one of the three leading agrarian technology fairs in Europe,“ said Managing Director of BVV Trade Fairs Brno, Jiří Kuliš.

The Brno exhibition of agricultural, breeding and forestry equipment was held in Brno for the first time 20 years ago and it presently ranks the third largest show of its type in Europe. This position is also confirmed by its international nature - both the exhibitors as well as visitors arrived from four dozen countries around the world this year. More than 300 trips organised for experts from agricultural companies and firms arrived at the fair. Approximately 250 buses came to the exhibition centre from all regions of the Czech Republic along with 50 buses from Slovakia and several dozens from Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland.

Domestic as well as foreign exhibitors were highly satisfied with the scope of the offer and the number of presented innovations. The exhibitors included all the leading European manufacturers and distributors of agricultural and forestry equipment. The best exhibit competition was entered by 87 top quality products and thirteen of them were awarded the Grand Prix.

The TECHAGRO fair is a traditional bellwether of the market mood and indicates the future trends in agricultural equipment sales during the entire season. The high visit rate and the shopping desire have issued a positive signal to the vendors and confirm the optimistic expert expectations.

The fairs offered an extensive specialist supporting programme addressing the current issues faced by the sector. The development of international business cooperation was the subject of roundtable „Euro-Asian Economic Commission – Russia-Kazakhstan-Belorussia-Czech Republic“. The trends in supporting young farmers was the subject of the XVIII Congress of the Young Agrarians´ Society of the Czech Republic and the prospects of family-run farms was the subject of a seminar organised by the Association of Private Farmers „Year of family run farms“.

As part of the ANIMAL VETEX fair, a two-day 6th Central European Veterinary Congress was held, involving 180 veterinary experts from the CR and abroad.

The specialist supporting programme at the SILVA REGINA fair covered all five days of the fair and was taking place in the lecture hall of the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology of Mendel University in Brno. It was dedicated to topics such as use of wood in building industry, European forestry policy, state forestry policy, CR forest inventory and services for forest owners.

The BIOMASS fair offered several cycles of lectures and presentations focusing on composting, biomass and energy use of wood mass. Great attention was paid to twenty practical demonstrations of crushing and chipping, engaging equipment of ten exhibiting firms.

The trade fairs attracted not only professionals but also the general public who could enjoy attractive supporting programmes at the exhibition centre organised by partner organisations as well as the exhibitors. Great attention was also paid to the livestock show with a commented presentation of cattle, sheep and goats. The skills presented by lumberjack athletes could be admired by the spectators during several show sand competitions including a qualification competition as part of the Czech championship in timber sports STIHL® TIMBERSPORTS®.

Thanks to the cooperation with the Association of Entrepreneurs ,SILVAJAGD, Hall Z hosted a number of unique hunting and forestry exhibits from museums and private collections, including unique trophies from hunting grounds of the Military Forests and Compounds of the Czech and Slovak Republics on display for the first time. Introducing agriculture and forest management to the youngest generation was the purpose of Agriculture lives! and forest pedagogy which attracted hundreds of child visitors.

The entire ground floor of Hall E was occupied by a large bee keeping exhibition with a record-breaking number of bee keepers. A broad assortment of bee products with Easter theme was complemented by a course of lectures on bee keeping.

Journalists
Over the first four days, a total of 261 media representatives from eight countries got accredited at the press centre. The total number of foreign journalists was 36, coming from Bulgaria, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The next edition of the TECHAGRO, ANIMAL VETEX, SILVA REGINA and BIOMASS fair will take place between 3rd - 7th April 2016.

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What was said about the fairs

Marian Jurečka, Minister of Agriculture of the CR:
I am greatly honoured to open the fairs. First time I was here in 1994 I was thirteen and I have been lucky enough not to miss any of the editions to date. Once in two years, this is the most important event in agriculture and forestry. I would be very happy if the record-breaking number of exhibitors and record-breaking exhibition space was also complemented by a record-breaking number of visitors and a record-breaking number of deals were agreed and made here. One of the purposes of TECHAGRO is to make the people engaged in agriculture meet, speak to each other, foster their friendship and further develop the agrarian sector also through this event.

Miroslav Toman, president of the Agrarian Chamber of the CR:
These fairs rank amongst the largest agricultural events in Europe. They are the meeting point for farmers, as well as gamekeepers, mechanical engineers, veterinary surgeons and just anyone who works in the countryside, takes care of if, cares for it and develops it for the future. I am very glad that this fair brings innovations and upgrade options, all the more because we are going to handle fund allocations from the Rural Development programme in the coming future. We are making every effort to make sure that a part of these funds –approximately 30 percent – will be allocated for upgrades and innovations and therefore we wish to make sure that agriculture moves forward and Czech farmers do better and that people can enjoy good quality foodstuffs and the countryside can further develop.

Chairman of the Agricultural Union of the CR, Martin Pýcha:
Agriculture is in a good condition. These are companies that do not only assemble, but also develop and manufacture top quality agriculture equipment. Last edition was already record breaking, this year‘s edition too, and I am convinced that this year‘s edition will be record-breaking both as to the number of exhibitors and the number of visitors.

Dušan Benža, director of the secretariat of the Association of Agricultural and Forestry Equipment:
Just like every edition, even this fair is record- breaking. This is also viewed in a very positive way by visitors coming from abroad. We held a number of meetings with our partners coming from countries such as Great Britain and France, as well as with the representatives of trade fair administration, for example Russians have their own exhibition stand here. Those coming to the fair from abroad for the first time must be surprised by its quality and those who come repeatedly can only confirm that its quality standards keep increasing. Our member companies I had a chance to talk to are satisfied. Some firms confirm that they signed several contracts right on the spot and received orders from new customers, which has not been the case in recent years. This shows that there is a slight optimism prevailing in the sector of agriculture.

Oto Lasák, executive in Lesnická práce, s.r.o.:
This year’s fairs were record-breaking in all aspects. I would highlight in particular the large number of visitors. I very much hope that forest keepers will have comparable conditions provided by the state to those enjoyed by our farmers. This would make it possible to upgrade and renew the equipment, which would help in the first place the suppliers of work headed by sole traders and subsequently the suppliers of machinery who practically do not sell. Government orders must be freed of the nonsensically low prices of work which make the machinery upgrade impossible.

Velina Dineva Petkova, owner and editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian weekly Agrovestnik, organiser of the trade fair mission of Bulgarian experts:
We were all greatly impressed by the large number of visitors and its composition as the fair was attended by lots of young people and families with children. This shows that young people are interested in this sector. Everyone very much enjoyed the fair organisation and the attention that is paid to the Bulgarian delegation in Brno. What is also interesting is that other Bulgarian visitors arrived individually, I met experts on animal production here along with representatives of New Holland and Zetor and other farm machinery manufacturers.

Antonín Brzobohatý, executive in S – servis bke, s. r. o.:
We have been coming to exhibit our products at SILVA REGINA regularly since 2004 and this year we are very satisfied. Perhaps the number of visitors is too high but, of course, this is excellent. We attend lots of game keeping exhibitions but I have never seen so many people there, neither in this country nor abroad. We have come here for two reasons – to make the visitors happy by giving them a chance to shoot and to promote our laser shooting ranges. People are queuing up here all day long. It goes without saying that our participation has a commercial dimension, too, as our turnover increases for approx. half a year after the fair.

Pavlína Vašíčková, Forest Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the CR:
Forest pedagogy is a regular supporting event at the SILVA REGINA fair but this year we have decided to structure it slightly differently, we have expanded our presentation space and we also focus on children. We prepared several areas where they can learn what a forester must be able to do to take care of a forest. This year we are highly satisfied with the interest of the visitors. On the first trade fair day they kept us busy from the morning till the evening. Now the pupils come and say goodbye by saying that they have enjoyed it here, which is always nice to hear.

Šárka Holzbachová, head of IT department, Forestry and Game Management Research Institute:
We regularly exhibit at the SILVA REGINA fair and I view this year’s edition as very successful also because of the high visitor rate. Also at our exhibition stand we felt that the number of people was larger than in previous years. We come to present here activities of our institute and to us, the trade fair is very important as an opportunity to contact professionals. For example, we are presenting here our explanted woody species bank and other things that people cannot get close to otherwise, and therefore the visitors show great interest.

Petr Cankař, owner of ATMOS:
We are absolutely satisfied with the fair not only in terms of the number of visitors but also in terms of the number of exhibitors and the general standard. We were also successful in terms of business deals. We come here every two years and being a manufacturer of heating equipment we have customers amongst farmers as well as foresters and gamekeepers and therefore this fair is an ideal opportunity for us.

Jan Kadubec, head of marketing department, LIEBHERR – STAVEBNÍ STROJE CZ s.r.o.:
Compared to the previous editions of the SILVA REGINA fairs, we took this one in a more comprehensive way and we brought with us five machines, of which two are to be deployed in the wood-processing industry and three are intended for agricultural production. We tried to turn the entire exhibition stand into a place comfortable for our customers, with great facilities and ample space to showcase the machines. We are definitely satisfied with the visitor rate. Although our stand is roughly twice bigger than in the past it was never empty. Sunday was truly hectic, mainly families with children arrived and from Monday we started having business meetings and each our salesperson held meetings with invited customers. We will evaluate the fair once it is over but in terms of the number of visitors we already consider it as very successful.

Jan Šípek, marketing manager, STROM PRAHA a.s.:
This year‘s edition of Techagro was excellent. Our stand was chock-a-block full all the time, incredible, crammed. Our company has traditionally visited the fair since 1994, this year it was not easy to get a larger exhibition stand as the exhibition centre was fully occupied. We were fighting with other exhibitors for every piece of exhibition space. BVV Trade Fairs Brno were accommodating and we managed to get a larger stand than last time, approximately 2,000 square meters. The exhibition stand focused on John Deere. However, space was also provided for other companies from our offer, special machinery for forest applications was on display in Hall. We were very satisfied here.

Vlastimil Zeman, sales support manager in MERIMEX s. r. o.:
Given the number of visitors that is record-breaking again, we are very satisfied. Our stand is full of people all the time, there is always someone here to talk about innovations, always someone to present our products to. Weather is great, too. We have established a couple of new contacts that appear quite promising and therefore we are also satisfied in business terms. We have had mainly Slovak customers and two of them discuss specific contracts, which has not happened to us yet.

Josef Kučera, director of the Union of Czech Fleckvieh cattle breeders
We are back at TECHAGRO after two years. Over that time, our breeders have done a great deal of work. Last year, our average yield was for the first time over 7,000 kg of milk, which again confirmed our top position in Europe. We have a lot to offer to our partners as well as those who come to visit us at the fair. At the next table there are our colleagues from Moldavia who came to select heifers from our farms for their herds, and we are going to get visited by colleagues from Uzbekistan, and a great interest in cooperation was expressed last week in Vietnam.

Ctibor Zourek, head of business information department, MIKROP ČEBÍN
We can see that the agricultural companies have become consolidated and achieve relatively good economic results. This is also reflected in the interest in the TECHAGRO fair, which is, based on the information of BVV, the largest event of the year. The visitors‘ interest has been enormous this year and of course we feel it, too. We also use this opportunity to meet our customers and to thank them. I view our presence in Brno positively.

Jan Bernardy, president of the Chamber of Veterinary Surgeons of the Czech Republic
The Brno trade fair is a great joyful event, starting with Techagro, the Central European Congress of Veterinary Surgeons and the Animal Vetex fair. It offers a number of livestock to be seen which is quite rare here in the south of Moravia given the reduction in the livestock count over the past years in Brno and in the entire region as such. It is a joy to come here to have a look.

Michal Karmazín, business manager, AGRICO
We are one of the companies that have exhibited at Techagro since the very beginning. This year’s cooperation with BVV Trade Fars Brno during the preparation was very good, it was accommodating and flexible. As regards the number of visitors, Sunday surpassed expectations and Tuesday, which is traditionally the main and crucial day for us, manufacturers and suppliers of stable equipment, met our expectations. At the exhibition stand we talked to our existing as well as new customers about projects in the pipeline, we registered, for example, a great interest in our fish breeding recirculation system using waste heat from biogas stations, which is an exhibit entered in the Grand Prix competition.

Libor Novotný, product manager, BAUER
Our company focuses on export, the main reason why we attend the fair in Brno is to promote our brand and show our current offer in animal production. We have brought with us farm and stable models as well as examples of technologies that we can offer to our customers. We noticed a greater interest of the visitors in milk production and the resulting installations for milk cows and dairies. We were satisfied with the number of visitors, mainly from Monday to Wednesday.

Josef Maňásek, executive, GEA Farm Technologies CZ
We see TECHAGRO as a very good fair introducing new information and knowledge to the farmers, which is also reflected in the visitor rate. We were surprised by the number of people interested in the showcased exhibits. The main attraction at our exhibition stand was the milking robot MIone, which was on display for the first time and although it had not yet been installed anywhere in the Czech Republic, the response was great , similarly to the brand new milking equipment, the Apollo system.

František Kolář, sales representative, ALEX INDUSTRIES
In Brno, we offered our complete product portfolio of stable technologies for cows, pigs and horses and our exhibition stand introduced an innovation in the field of ventilation for pigs, being a system of air inlet to the stall via a feeding air distributor which can be extended by air cooling. We also noticed interest in air washers that our company can build in directly in the exhaust duck and therefore no central air washer is needed. Our expectations from the fair were fulfilled we are satisfied with the number of visitors and the general course of the exhibition.

Petr Svadbík, business manager in Pilous-pásové pily, spol. s r.o.:
This year’s Techagro and Silva Regina were a major event which was translated in the number of visitors coming to our stand. It was full all the time, there were many people interested in our saws. We even made a deal with some of the farmers at the fair concerning the purchase of our smaller wood saws. We were satisfied, the fair was beneficial for our company. Of course, we will also take part in the next edition of these trade fairs.

Vlastimil Vozník st., sales representative in BV Technika, a.s.:
This fair is better than the one held in German Hannover and the best of this kind in Europe. In fact, we had no time to leave the exhibition stand as we had to attend to our potential clients all the time. This event was highly beneficial for the company and I think that for the others, too. In my view, Techagro will also have a great influence on the agricultural equipment sale recovery notwithstanding the fact that companies made new contacts here. I am pleased that our company could introduce new machinery here, in particular the high-performance fodder harvester.

Petr Dlouhý, Chairman of the Board of Directors of HZT Technik-servis, a.s.:
For us, Techagro is a very important exhibition as it is for other manufacturers. Our Dutch partner wanted us to present ourselves in Brno on such a large scale. In terms of its presentation, Techagro is comparable with the Hannover trade fair. The company was satisfied with its participation. This year experienced a record-breaking number of exhibitors and visitors. The high number of visitors was also caused by nice weather as all work in the field is completed. The boss of the Dutch company Triolieta arrived in Brno to discuss new contacts in the CR and to negotiate new contracts in the CR. We were very satisfied.

Valentíny Marek, product manager in Maschio Gaspardo:
I find the Techagro fair to be highly professional. Our exhibit was visited by a large number of professional visitors who understand machinery and know what they want to buy. When they see new technology, they ask immediately how the machines work. Our stand was visited by a host of potential customers, being present at the fair paid off as we showed that we were able to offer a comprehensive programme for soil cultivation. We also established new contacts and reinforced the existing ones.

David Pokorný, marketing manager, Bednar FTM s.r.o.:
This year’s Techagro was most successful, the firm was very pleased to see that it can make its brand more and more visible for the farmers. This year, our stand had triple capacity compared to the previous edition and it proved to be the right decision. Our stand was crammed all the time by people interested in agricultural technology. I must repeat that this is what we see as a huge success. If we want to be strong players in the market, we must not be missing in Brno and we must make the very best impression.

Pavel Kouřil, authorised sales representative of Krone for the Czech and Slovak Republics:
To me, Techagro was very successful. Given the large number of visitors we had to order more promotional materials as our equipment was in great demand. We are pleased that we managed to win the Techagro Grand Prix for automatic calibration. We were visited by the marketing boss from Krone who declared that Techagro is like smaller Agritechnika, which takes place in Hannover. The company is very happy about its participation at the Brno fair.

Mojmír Freund, marketing manager UNIMARCO a.s.:
The company made a good move by moving from Hall V to Hall P. This was also appreciated by our customers, we liked that no show was taking place in his hall and the hall was thus peace and quiet for proper meetings as this fair was virtually hectic, with many people interested in our equipment. In economic terms, the fair was a success for the company, we established lots of new contacts and strengthened the existing ones. Our clients took a decision right here to upgrade their machinery using mechanisation we supply although they fall into the more expensive category that cannot be bought via the Internet. Given the extreme visitor rate this year, we must also appreciate the organisation of the trade fair coping with the arrivals of visitors and parking. That was why our partners managed to always come to the meeting in time.

Přemysl Šedivý, executive, AGROMEX:
This year’s edition of the fair was a success, we even stroke some deals right at the fair. We had meetings with our customers and our business partners every day. We were visited by our colleagues from the CR as well as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. This year‘s event will certainly help the agricultural machinery market recovery and as far as I can see, it may also boost the sale of tractors and other mechanisms in some time. This was demonstrated by the interest of the farmers coming to the trade fair.

Milan Matula, marketing manager, AGRALL:
We were satisfied with this year’s trade fair in all respects – excellent organisation, large number of visitors and a huge interest in our product offer. We did not believe that we would sell some equipment right at the trade fair, but we did, thanks to the great interest, although this was not our priority. We presented nine innovations that we introduced to our business partners. We also held lots of meetings with our new potential customers.