On Tuesday, the sound of seed processing machines sounded 'normal' again on location at Proeftuin Zwaagdijk, where day one of the three Zaadtechniek Demonstratiedagen (Seed Technology Demonstration days) kicked off. In an adapted form, it is a physical alternative to Seed meets Technology, the fast-growing specialist fair for the seed sector.
The fair organization: Marlies Reus, Susan Reus and Kim Goudsblom
View the photo report of day 1 here.
It is on
Great for the organization, in the hands of Marlies Reus, Kim Goudsblom and Susan Reus on behalf of Proeftuin Zwaagdijk, was that, in the middle of the corona crisis, a few exhibitors asked if they could come to Zwaagdijk-Oost with their products.
“Because of corona, this spring it seemed to us as a fair that we could not organize the seventh edition,” says Marlies. “However, when a few exhibitors asked us if they could come here after all, to show customers their products by appointment, we decided to set up an adjusted fair around it.”
Marcel Looije from Axia Vegetable Seeds came to see the Eureka color sorter from Advanced Sorting Machines at the Niklas/Reiter stand. Also in the picture: Michele Cantori from ASM and Mathijs Wuts from Niklas.
Meeting point
The fact that the exhibitors in particular, including two German companies who were present with Dutch representatives, requested if they could come is a compliment for the organization of this relatively young event. In recent years, the fair has grown rapidly with more exhibitors and visitors every year, especially also internationally. For the organization, the request of the exhibitors was an excellent opportunity to remain in the picture as a meeting point for specialists from the seed sector, even without the seventh edition of Seed meets Technology.
And so on Tuesday, September 22, at 1:00 PM, the doors were opened for the visitors, of which about 150 have already registered online in advance, while spontaneously visiting and registering at the door was still also possible. Under a bright sun the first visitors found their way to the hall, where the stands were neatly spread out on the exhibition floor with enough square meters of space left for all the visitors.
Good conversation
The parking lot of course remained emptier than usual and that was also the case for the demo fields of the various breeding companies around the exhibition location. Here this year no groups of people with notepads in hand among the cabbages, tubers and lettuce, but mainly online events.
The organization of the Zaadtechniek Demonstratiedagen did not like the latter, online. “If you want to do that well, it will cost a lot of time and money and moreover, in our opinion, the subject of this fair lends itself more for a good, sometimes quite technical conversation, one on one on location. That is what we like to offer.”
Photo right: Marcel Wolbrink of Petkus Selecta was, halfway through the first afternoon, positively surprised by the discussions he already had with interested specialist visitors. In the photo report pictures of the optical sorter that the company brought along.
In your home country
In any case, the present exhibitors and visitors were delighted with the offered opportunity. The visitors who arrived early Tuesday afternoon, had an excellent opportunity to be properly, quietly and extensively informed about seed sorters, seed counting machines, germination cabinets or drying machines.
Just like for them, and for the exhibitors as well, the fair in Zwaagdijk-East is actually the only specialist fair for the seed sector in the Netherlands. There are, and would be also this year, the necessary fairs worldwide, but in Malta, among others, an event was cancelled and a lot of events in the United States are out of reach from Europeans due to corona rules.
View the photo report of day 1 here.
Doors open
Day two of the fair has started Wednesday morning. In contrast to Tuesday, the doors were already open at 9 a.m. which will also be the case on Thursday. The reason for the adjusted opening times is the fact that exhibitors prefer not to spend two extra half-days on setting up and dismantling the stand. That the organization also went along with that wish was satisfactory.
Thursday was the final day of the event.
For more information: 
Proeftuin Zwaagdijk
www.proeftuinzwaagdijk.nl
proeftuin@proeftuinzwaagdijk.nl
Marlies Reus
marliesreus@proeftuinzwaagdijk.nl