3,600 Trade Visitors from 63 Nations Came to IPM DUBAI
and WOP DUBAI 09

After a Successful Premiere, Strong Growth is expected for WOP DUBAI

The fourth IPM DUBAI and the new WOP DUBAI World of Perishables fair for fresh fruit and vegetables which was staged for the first time in parallel at Airport Expo Dubai have come to an end with very good success. "With a total of around 3,600 visitors from 63 countries, we have confirmed the position of IPM DUBAI as one of the most important horticultural fairs in the Arab region and, in addition, have installed a very popular new special fair for temperature-sensitive goods," Egon Galinnis, Managing Director of Messe Essen, and Michael Müller, Managing Director of the joint venture partner planetfair which is based in Dubai, showed that they were very pleased about the good course of both the events which were staged together.
    
His Excellency Khalid Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Director General of Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing (DTCM) who inaugurated the two sister shows, emphasized the importance of quality fresh flowers, plants, fruit and vegetable for a green Dubai and the hospitality industry.

The premiere of WOP DUBAI for which Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance for UAE, & Chairman of Dubai Municipality was the patron turned out to be even more positive than the expectations. 80 exhibitors from 18 countries participated in the new fair and presented to the 1,347 visitors their products and services from the fields of fresh goods, goods security, technical equipment, transport, trading and services. 15 percent of the IPM visitors attended WOP and praised the parallel staging of the two sister events so that the total number of visitors to WOP exceeded 1700.
    
WOP was strongly supported by the Dubai Municipality and the Al Aweer wholesale market with market leaders Fresh Fruits LLC, Unifrutti and Shokri Hassan.

The WOP Conference which was organised together with the Eurofresh publishing house and dealt with subjects such as market opportunities or logistics and food safety too was also very well-visited. "The market is there; with regard not only to the subject of temperature-sensitive goods but also to the synergetic effects between IPM DUBAI and WOP, we have backed the right horse," Galinnis and Müller are certain. "We are expecting strong growth for WOP in the next few years."

The next World of Perishables Trade Fair will take place in February/March 2010.