A Global Industry Meeting In Stuttgart

Every three years Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden-Württemberg Stuttgart, becomes the hub of the world of wine and fruit juice. Between 24 – 27 April INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA 2013, as the global innovation platform expects around 600 exhibitors from 23 countries and more than 37,000 trade visitors from all continents. Again this year, the top-quality international congress programme will provide the backbone for the trade fair. Under the motto "Responsibility today for future viticulture", the German Winegrowers' Association (DWV) and its partner organisations from the wine, fruit, fruit juice and spirits industry are counting on approximately 1,500 experts from throughout the world for the 61st German Winegrowers' Congress alone. Over an area of 60,000 square metres, slightly more the last time in 2010, the producers of wine, fruit, fruit juice and spirits can experience technology first-hand and find solutions for their specific problems in Europe's most modern trade fair centre. Approximately a third of exhibitors and a quarter of visitors to INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA come from outside of Germany. Companies from Chile and Ireland will be exhibiting for the first time.

The preliminary exhibitor directory for INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA 2013 reads like a "Who’s Who" of international technology leadership. It starts with A such as for AGCO Fendt, Amorim Cork, Anton Wottle Maschinenbau (Austria), Antonio Carraro or Atlantic C and continues with names such as Baertschi Agrartecnic (Switzerland), BASF, Bayer CropScience, Berthoud Agricole (France), Braun Maschinenbau, Bucher Vaslin (France), Clemens, CNH Deutschland, Defranceschi, Della Toffola (Italy), Eaton Technologies, Erbslöh Geisenheim, Ernst Möschle Behälterbau, Euro-Machines (USA), Filtrox (Switzerland), Gai (Italy), GEA Westfalia Separator, Gruppo Bertolaso (Italy), Heinrich Gültig Korkwarenfabrikation, Ilmer Maschinenbau (Italy), Industrias David (Spain), KHS, Korkindustrie Trier, Kosme, KMS Rinklin, Krones, Letina Inox (Croatia), Max Holder, NIKO, Nomacorc (Belgium), Pall, Pellenc (France), Rieger Behälterbau, Rink, Robino & Galandrino (Italy), Same Deutz-Fahr, Scharfenberger, Speidel Tank- und Behälterbau, Syngenta Agro, TMCI Padovan (Italy), Vicard Tonneleries (France), Voran Maschinen (Austria), Wagner Pflanzentechnik, WIGOL W. Stache, Willmes, Zambelli Enotech (Italy) or Zupan (Slowenien). The largest non-German exhibitor country in 2013 will again be Italy, followed by France, Austria and Switzerland.

DWV and Messe Stuttgart as the organisers have come up with something special this time for the winegrowers and fruit farmers: as opposed to 2010, when a trade fair hall was used, the popular machinery demonstrations will again be held this time in very real conditions in the open air, as in the former Stuttgart trade fair centre in Killesberg. A small steep-slope vineyard has been created on a natural elevated section next to the L-Bank Forum (Hall 1) where daily at 2 pm visitors to the fair will experience tractors and other equipment along with attachments live in use. A further highlight is the large tasting workshop in Hall 5. Approximately 300 experimental wines from German academies and research institutes are a real "playground" for professionals from the industry and can be savoured in just the same way as the effects on wine of different vine tying and yeasts, yield management, various expansion types as well as the addition of tannins or enzymes.

New in the INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA 2013 programme is a joint stand for young, innovative companies sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Ten of them will be presenting their fresh product or services ideas in the L-Bank Forum (Hall 1).

The trade fair itself is clearly divided into the four exhibition areas of cultivation and harvesting techniques, processing and process control, filling and packaging technology as well as marketing and organisation, and it is therefore the only trade fair of this type to portray the complete process chain for the production of wine, fruit, fruit juice and spirits – from the vineyard and orchard through the enology and packaging right up to sales. An increasingly greater role for producers is being taken by marketing of their products. It is therefore no surprise that the congress programme includes an international wine marketing day this time on 23 April, at which major industry players such as Dr. Georgios Tsantali, the largest wine producer in Greece, Paul Cluver from South Africa, Fritz Keller from the wine estate with the same name in Kaiserstühl or Constance Rérolle (Chateau de l’Engarran) will talk about their personal experience.
At the "Wine, Tourism and Architecture" congress on 25 April experts from inside and outside of Germany, also including the interior designer of the Mercedes Benz Museum Stuttgart HG Merz, will discuss how not only how cellars, tanks and barrels are effectively stage-managed, but also complete wine estates. Not without reason is wine tourism worldwide considered to be a growth market offering great potential in the future. This is why for the third time in the run-up to INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA 2013, the Ministry of Viticulture of Rhineland-Palatinate, the German Winegrowers' Association and the Rhineland-Palatinate Chamber of Architects have awarded their "Wine Architecture Prize". As in 2007 and 2010, the award-winning work can again be seen at the trade fair.
The congress under the patronage of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) is oriented by subjects on the four exhibition areas of INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA 2013. Over five days international presentations – with simultaneous German/English interpreting – will be combined into subjects for morning and afternoon blocks so that attendees will still have enough time to visit the trade fair and while away the day with a fine wine from the 13 German winegrowing regions and enjoy good conversations in the congress lounge in the ICS. 140 subject specialists from 17 nations will provide the necessary exchange between science and practical application. The further congress subjects in Stuttgart include: oenology (23 April), winegrowing technology, microbiology and analytics, the EU wine market policy (24 April), sustainable viticulture, the future market of fruit and drinks (25 April). Organic viticulture and fruit cultivation (26 April) ending with a "Distillers Conference" on 27 April.

The importance of INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA in the industry is shown not least of all by the fact that the 2013 Plenary Session of the European Winegrowing Regions AREV with its President Jean-Claude Bachy will be held on 23 April in the ICS International Congress Center Stuttgart. In addition to the Parliamentary State Secretary Peter Bleser, prominent names such as Thierry Coste, President of the COPA-COGECA Working Group on Wine in Brussels, Lamberto Vallarino Gancia, President of the Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV), and Hermanus Versteijlen from the EU Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development are expected at the winegrowing policy congress of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection on the subject of the 2013 EU Agricultural Reform.

The opening speech for the congress meeting on sustainable viticulture on 25 April will be given by the EU Commissioner for Energy, Günther H. Oettinger. The list of speakers for the congress includes well known names such as Miguel Torres jun. (Spain) from the globally positioned wine estates with the same name based in Catalonia and Chris Savage from the Gallo Family Vineyards (USA), one of the largest wine producers worldwide. The ecological viticulture congress on 26 April will be held under the patronage of the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Agriculture Ulrike Höfken – she will give the opening speech. The programme on that day also includes awarding the PIWI prize for wines made from fungus-resistant vines. A separate congress on 26 April is dedicated to organic fruit cultivation.

At the "Distillers Conference" on 27 April Germany's Finance Minister Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble will examine the future prospects for small and fruit distilleries after the end of the spirits monopoly at the end of 2017. A special exhibition in the congress is taken up by an event on 25 April: as part of the Young Winegrowers’ Conference at INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA the German Federation of Rural Youth together with Messe Stuttgart will be staging a young winegrowers party in the atrium at the East Entrance.

INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA organised only every three years enjoys an excellent reputations as an innovation trade fair far beyond Germany's borders. It is fitting that a record number of 82 applications has been received for the INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA 2013 innovation competition organised by the German Winegrowers' Association. A 41-person strong, international specialist jury filtered out 29 of them as submissions recognised as being innovation – the highly desired medals have only been awarded three times in gold and silver, there has also been a special prize. "The independent jury has apparently set high standards!", noted the President of the German Winegrowers' Association, Norbert Weber, at the announcement of the winners during a press conference in Mainz. The awards will be presented during the ARTVINUM INNOVATION ceremony for the opening of the 61st German Winegrowers' Congress on the evening before the trade fair.

For the first time the German Winegrowers' Association and Messe Stuttgart in cooperation with a travel agency in parallel to INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA are offering two study trips for trade visitor groups from outside Germany that combine the visit to the trade fair with an excursion lasting several days into the German wine-growing regions. The five-day package with hotel accommodation, transfers, wine estate visits, guided trade fair tours and a visit to the Stuttgart Mercedes Benz Museum costs 599 euros and can be booked at www.travelpoint.de. A somewhat more extensive version that also includes a visit to the renowned German academies in Geisenheim, Weinsberg, Oppenheim and Neustadt an der Weinstraße costs 849 euros.

INTERVITIS INTERFRUCTA is open during 24 – 27 April from 09:00 to 18:00 daily. The day ticket for trade visitors costs 20 euros (online 16 euros), the two-day ticket 31 euros (online 27 euros). Apprentices, students and senior citizens pay 12 euros (online 10 euros). All information on the trade fair is available in the internet at www.intervitis-interfructa.de. The programme for the 61st German winegrowers' congresses can be found at www.dwv-online.de/kongress. Tickets for the congress can also be bought there at the congress price of 195 euros.

Press Contact:
xenos-comm e.K |Thomas Brandl | Tel.: +49 7046 8 80 85 – 0| thomas.brandl@xenos-comm.de
Andreas Ott |Tel.: + 49 711 18560 2449 | Fax: + 49 711 18560 2460 |andreas.ott@messe-stuttgart.de