Serbian agriculture show proves success despite floods

Companies that participate at this year's agriculture fair in Serbia are pleased that despite heavy floods that hit Serbia recently, many business deals are concluded every day. The 81st International Agricultural Fair that opened on May 20 in Novi Sad, east Serbia displays the latest from agricultural machinery, equipment from the food industry, chemicals and pesticides, organic food as other products in the field of agriculture industry. Boris Nadlukac, representative of the service for corporative relations of the Novi Sad Fair said that some 10 per cent of the exhibitors did not participate in this year's fair due to heavy floods that hit Serbia. However, organizers are also satisfied because 1,500 representatives of companies from 60 countries shown up at the fair, while number of visitors will be probably measured in tens of thousands of people. "Agriculture is an industry branch that will lead our country first to reconstruction and then to development after the floods, and we hope that it will start it from this fair," Nadlukac told Xinhua, adding that the agriculture exhibition in Novi Sad is still among the five most important agriculture exhibitions in Europe, having in mind number of exhibitors, visitors and business deals that will be concluded during the seven days of the fair. He said that Chinese companies are getting more visible each year at the fair, which means that the "relations between China and Serbia will get even better in the future." Among some ten companies that sell Chinese products the biggest name this year is company YTO that produces tractors, and since 2010 has its own factory in Serbia. Marketing Director of the YTO Group for Serbia Xu Li said that the company is pleased with the fair at which they have participated for ten years in a row, since they started doing business in Serbia. "Since 2010 we have started to assemble tractors in Serbia. Half of the parts are manufactured in Serbia, and the other half in China. A part of our tractors is sold in Serbia, and other part is exported in European countries. We want to increase our production and export more to European countries," said Xu. In a need to help Serbian people after the floods, YTO Group decided to give two of their tractors worth 30,000 euro as a donation to help farmers whose fields were damaged, Xu said. Aleksandar Pinter, representative of the Italian company that sells wood cutting machines, said that it is noticeable that Serbian floods and damages inflicted by them influenced fair's visit. "We are present for 10 years on Novi Sad's fair, and we noticed that the interest drops every year. There is less and less exhibitors, and the big names that are missing are noticeable," said Pinter. Silvester Poldruhi, director of the Serbian company that sells mostly Italian agricultural sprinklers, watering systems, ploughs and tillers said that this year, unlike previous ones, a smaller amount of visitors are at the fair, but those that come are the "real buyers." "As every year my company will earn money from participating, or else we would not be here," Poldruhi said. Dragan Galecic in charge of sales and marketing in a Serbian company that produces tractors however said that the floods and the poor economic state of the farmers did not decrease interest for Serbian tractors. "We may not offer the best tractors in the world, but we have an excellent balance between quality and price," Galecic explained. However, he said that there haven't been many sales at the fair for now, but that he expects that the big deals will most likely come after it finishes on May 26.