“It’s been the best Elmia Wood so far,” says Erling Lindberg, sales manager for the Eco Log machinery manufacturer. “It feels like the economy is starting to pick up again.”
His belief is shared by Benny Sondell, CEO of Ponsse AB in Sweden. He has exhibited at Elmia since 1972, the year the fair first moved out to the forest.
“Never before have we had so many non-Swedish visitors to our stand. This has been a really good fair for Ponsse,” he says. He added that the visitors came from more countries than before, with a large increase from nations like France and Germany.
The fair has impressed foreign visitors. Dr Ute Seeling is the director of the German research institute KWF.
“Despite the recession and the bad weather, the fair was a success,” she says.
Walking around the exhibition site looking for trends, Dr Seeling noticed more machinery and other technology for bioenergy, which she believes is the next development stage for the forest industry. Bioenergy is one reason behind the great interest in Elmia Wood 2009. Despite the economic crisis, there is an increasing need for biofuel. Less felling means there is less forest residue available. The biofuel must be extracted in other ways, and they require new equipment.
“Our biggest worry prior to Elmia Wood 2009 was whether the international visitors would come to the extent that both we and our exhibitors are used to,” says Per Jonsson, project manager for Elmia Wood 2009. “The economic situation has been almost equally terrible in all the world’s forestry nations. Now we can see that our big international marketing campaign has paid off, and it feels terrific.”
Elmia Wood 2009 was also a sign of strength for trade fairs in general and Elmia’s forestry fairs in particular. Business deals are made between people. The Internet not only creates more direct sales, it also helps those buyers to discover more potential suppliers.
“That increases the suppliers’ need for more face-to-face meetings, which is where a forestry fair like Elmia Wood is really effective,” Jonsson says. “With this year’s fair, Elmia Wood has further strengthened its position as the world’s leading forestry fair.”
An equally important explanation for the fair’s success came from Sweden’s Minister for Agriculture Eskil Erlandsson, who presented new Swedish hunting legislation at the fair. He is an active woodlot owner himself:
“As a forest owner one has to visit Elmia to see what’s new and to meet old acquaintances.”
The number of unique visitors to Elmia Wood 2009 was 46,502* people.
Elmia Wood will return on 5-8 June 2013, but before then Elmia will host its Swedish forestry fair, SkogsElmia, from 26-28 May 2011.
*Elmia’s visitor total includes only unique visitors and is calculated in accordance with the regulations of Scandinavian Fair Control (SFC), that is, that the visitor total is checked by a third party. The 5,532 return visitors, exhibitors, or other individuals who worked at the fair, are not included in the visitor total.