This early, all prime exhibit booths have been booked by local and foreign firms, including local government units, many acquiring more than one for either Agrilink or Foodlink, or both.
This development came on the heels of the highly successful Agrilink and Foodlink 2001, which was participated in by 197 firms occupying a total of 262 indoor and outdoor booths and attracting over 14,000 visitors to view the exhibits, attend its 20 seminars, learn about new products upgrade their technologies, and explore business opportunities.
Foreign exhibitors include companies from the US, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Italy, Israel, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Malaysia and other Asia Pacific countries.
These foreign companies are involved in the manufacture of equipment and machinery, while the others in feeds, veterinary health, animal breeding, food processing, fertilizer and seed production, horticulture, farm supplies, and other related enterprises.
The local participants included San Miguel Foods, Purefoods, Infarmco Group of Companies, Universal Robina, Ariela Marketing, Mingley Trades, Asia Giant, Vitarich, Foremost Farms, Monsanto Philippines, and Belmont, among many others.
Retail exhibitors posted average direct sales of about P26,000 during the three-day event, while indoor participants reported an average of P545,000 worth of orders booked and under negotiations.
On the visitor side, almost half were farm owners, financial advisors, veterinarians and marketing managers involved in purchasing while more than a third were engineers, researchers, consultants, technicians and sales agents evaluating new products and technologies.
Held annually, Agrilink 2002 will be the ninth since 1994, and Foodlink 2002 the third since 2000.
These twin events are organized by the Foundation for Resource Linkage and Development (FRLD) and supported by the Department of Agriculture, National Agriculture and Fisheries Council, and 26 local industry associations who participated as co-organizers.
Other details can be obtained from the FRLD (tel. 8384549, 8384852; fax 8384573, or email frld@info.com.ph)
Globally popular, these twin exhibits bring to the Philippines the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of advanced food and agricultural equipment, facilities, products, systems and technologies, and links them with the local industry for possible marketing tie-ups, joint ventures and other business activity.
Such linkages complement the efforts of homegrown food and agribusiness industries to modernize their production systems through technology transfer, expand their foreign markets, and find new products for local distribution.