Undertaking from different perspectives, growers spoke about how to anticipate the rising demand from the European retail for more sustainable products and how to demonstrate this with certification. Royal FloraHolland gave a clear picture that chains of supermarkets, garden centres and construction markets are more and more leading to ruling out the active substances which are possibly diminishing the bee population. Koppert Biological Systems showed how with integrated production methods, the use of mainly natural enemies, it is possible to reduce the application of chemical plant protection products.
In turn, MPS spoke about the certification MPS-ABC and the label MPS-ProductProof, with which growers can show which active ingredients they used or rather didn't use in their production. For retail, independent external control is of great importance, confirms Royal FloraHolland.
Iberflora: the recovery of the Spanish market
The Spanish floricultural sector shows recovery. This can be gleaned from the number of participants in the trade fair and the rising number of visitors. Many participants were positive about the course of the event. Also René Rombouts, coordinator of MPS in Spain looks back on a positive trade fair: “Optimism has now returned on the trade floor. You feel that the worst is over in the Spanish floricultural sector, although we still are depending on the export. In any case, the number of MPS-participants we welcomed was huge”.
For more information:
MPS
Arjan van der Meer
T: +31174615724
E: a.vd.meer@my-mps.com
www.my-mps.com