The large ornamental plant trade fair, IPM in Essen, is more than halfway through. The four-day event at Messe Essen has been lively, though Thursday is expected to be particularly busy - also after what many attendees start thinking about their journey home on Friday. If you're staying until the end, be sure to visit our colleagues Eelkje and Priscilla at stand 4F22f to keep them company and help them power through the final day.
Edwin Snabel with Bosman Van Zaal showing the recently introduced OptiDry
The demand for double screens continues to increase, the team with Svensson sees.
Jan Markus de Jong of the 140-year-old family business Royal Brinkman with cleaning products under its own brand.
In addition to cultivation floors, ErfGoed also supplies complete water technical installations
Technique
Although the trade fair primarily focuses on ornamental plant cultivation, horticultural technology also plays a significant role. In Hall 3, well-known companies are prominently featured - although it's not as much as it was a decade ago. Does this need to change? Not really. Some attendees appreciate the quieter presence of LED suppliers this year. The days when trade fairs were awash in purple and pink light from LED lamps are behind us. One possible reason for this shift is the expiration of a successful German subsidy program for LED lighting, which was highly beneficial last year but is no longer in place. Similarly, greenhouse construction has yet to see a resurgence, though market expectations remain optimistic.
A major topic of discussion is peat-free cultivation (Torffrei in German), which remains a hot issue. Other key themes include energy efficiency, with increasing attention on dehumidification—partly driven by the growing use of LED lighting—and labor challenges, where automation is seen as a potential solution.