An international trade fair for the cooperative movement

ICA Expo 2010 is the official trade fair of the International Co-operative Alliance with the aim to assure business opportunities for all participants. “We are expecting the presence of more than 15.000 visitors, 1.500 specialized buyers and 200 hosted buyers” affirms Luiz Branco, President of the event.

Asia has been strategically chosen to host the second edition of ICA Expo 2010, which will be held at The Bangalore Trade Centre in India, one of the largest emerging markets of the region both in the cooperative sector and consumer market of products and services.

ICA Expo 2010 will open up new markets to the cooperative sector and provide cooperatives with the opportunity to do significant business. ICA Expo 2010 aims creating significant business gains during the trade fair. Visionary cooperatives will benefit from participating in this unique event for the sector.

Ian Mcdonald, ICA Director General, said “ICA EXPO 2010 will be a great incentive for us to work together and promote the cooperative movement. Therefore, we encourage cooperatives and their organizations to participate in this trade fair, as we believe it will draw attention to the quality of our products and services and will show the level of organization of the cooperative movement and its capacity to partner with other enterprises.”

ICA EXPOCOOP is a landmark in the efforts to promote cooperative business as well as to create a greater visibility for cooperatives with main focus on food, beverage and products. The fair provides participants with the strengthening of the cooperative image and brings about business opportunities and commercial benefits. Aimed at gathering the world’s most renowned cooperatives in a single space, the movement’s main trade fair encourages the sector’s exports and imports by attracting a highly qualified public interested in their products.

To assure business for each and every exhibitor, ICA EXPO will select and bring worldwide professionals with a high buying and decision power to network and buy from cooperatives during the event. They will attend daily pre-scheduled meetings with a wide range of producers, industries and service cooperatives in order to persuade their business objectives. The buyers’ participating costs, which include air tickets and accommodation in Bangalore will be entirely covered by ICA EXPO. Besides, business meetings will be organized between exhibitors and buyers.

A number of workshops will also take place, to provide a wealth of additional networking experiences. This is a valuable opportunity for exhibitors to talk about their products and services and present their institutional characteristics to clients, saving time and focusing on business.

ICA-Americas invites cooperatives in the Americas to take part in this professional fair to promote cooperative products and services. The exhibitors can be:

• ICA members organisations
• Worldwide cooperatives including:
• Agricultural cooperatives
• Producer cooperatives
• Financial and insurance cooperatives
• Service cooperatives (workers, health, energy, among others)
• Organizations which give support to cooperatives
• Government entities and offices which support cooperatives
• Suppliers of goods and services to cooperatives

If you want to participate in ICA Expo or need further information about this trade fair please contact Marianella Ramírez at: aciproductos@aciamericas.coop

You can also downlowad the ICA Expo brochure from: www.icaexpo.com

Good reasons to showcase your products in ICA ExpoCoop 2010

• 80% of the visitors have a purchase decision-making power
• 71% of the visitors share information with 1 to 6 persons
• 52% of the prospective customers require no subsequent visits to close a deal
• For 91%, participation is a key factor to making a decision
• For 85% of the companies, the fair provides reduced selling costs
• Your cooperative or company return is 3 times the investment on average

Citadelle, the Canadian Maple Syrup Producers Co-operative, will be present in ICA EXPO 2010

Citadelle represents more than one third of the maple producers in the province of Quebec in Canada, collecting, processing and marketing a wide variety of maple products. It has been in business since 1925 and they sell in over 35 countries around the world. This is the first time the cooperative participates in ICA Expo where it will present its products to potential new distributors around the world as well as its 100% Coop logo, available exclusively to co-operatives. The 100% Coop Label represents caring for both product quality and the environment.

Jerry Kless, Sales & Marketing Director of Citadelle, describes ICA Expo as an opportunity. “We have found that there is an opportunity to meet and inform other cooperatives, that we process 100% pure maple syrup products by participating in ICA Expo. We have just recently been made aware of this exposition through my recent business trip to ICA-Americas Regional Office in Costa Rica. We can all mutually benefit from our experiences around the world as cooperatives. We also hope to expand our business in both existing and new markets through this exposition”.

Kless believes this kind of event helps raise awareness on the cooperative advantage. “We feel that many potential customers are not aware that our product is produced by a cooperative and that we can also offer food retail cooperatives the opportunity to offer their own customers a product which is 100% Coop, by including a special sticker on our bottles which indicates `100%Coop`. We are, therefore, an example and ambassadors for the benefits of the cooperative system to loyal members of cooperatives around the world”.