Pre Registrations of International IFTEX 2014 Visitors 300% Up!

There has been a 300% increase of pre registered attendees of this year's edition of IFTEX, compared to the 2013 event. At present, buyers from over 40 countries have signed to attend the three-day flower trade event that has attracted almost 200 exhibiting companies from more 16 countries.

Just three years ago Kenya didn’t have a professional floral trade event at all and exports were done mostly either to the (Dutch) auctions or through middlemen (brokers) that dominated the export trade of most Kenyan cut flowers. The expo changed that landscape rapidly by causing an acceleration of the development of ‘going direct’.

In just three years time IFTEX managed to bring most, if not all, growers together in one place, enabling international buyers to see Kenya’s total export potential in just three days. “An enormous promotional tool creating an even bigger export growth opportunity, a booster from here to Tokyo I dare to say”, emphasizes Dick van Raamsdonk, president of HPP Exhibitions, following IFTEX ‘s successful positioning of becoming number three on world’s list of most important flower growers trade events.

HPP recently invited Gerard de Wagt, a well known leading professional juror of international quality competitions inside and outside The Netherlands, to head IFTEX Quality Competitions this year.

“Looking at the importance of this exhibition, it is a must that the quality competitions are upgraded to a higher level of judging”. “Therefore we decided to look for the best man for this job and we came to appointing Mr. de Wagt. With him we are confident in bringing this event to the next level”.