The entire potato industry gathered at Harrogate International Centre, North Yorkshire 12 and 13 November for BP2015, the key industry event of the year.
“It’s clear that anyone who is serious about growing and purchasing potatoes came to the event,” commented AHDB Potatoes’ Strategy Director Rob Clayton. “There was a great atmosphere and a really positive feeling as you moved through the trade stands.
“It’s been tremendous for business and hugely rewarding for the immense amount of effort AHDB Potatoes staff, board members and exhibitors put into making this two-day event and seminar programme hugely worthwhile.”
Event exhibitors reflected “BP2015 pulls together all aspects of industry and clearly demonstrates the huge amount of work that goes on,” said Richard Clark, Commercial Director of BP2015 joint Gold sponsor Branston. “We’re proud to be a sponsor and interact with all aspects of the potato supply chain, especially our grower base, customers and suppliers.”
As well as a brand new Harrogate home, attracting international delegations to BP2015 was another ‘first’ for the event. Successful trade export discussions were held with leading seed producing companies from India and Morocco, hosted by AHDB Potatoes and SASA, (Scottish Government). The overseas visitors were able to meet GB’s leading exporters to examine in detail how GB seed potatoes can help their industry back at home.
More than 700 growers, processors, international guests and other industry representatives gathered at the Royal Hall on November 12 for the potato industry dinner and were entertained by sports commentator, Nick Mullins.
For joint Gold sponsor Grimme, it was a chance to celebrate. “This is GB’s premiere potato event and you need to be here to gauge the industry mood,” reported Grimme’s sales manager Andrew Starbuck.
“We found our customer base very optimistic about the future. We did a show deal on a Varitron 270 self-propelled harvester to a Yorkshire customer as well as a GT170 trailed harvester and topper to South Lincs. The show has proved valuable yet again for enquiries and potential leads.”
