Informa Egypt, a subsidiary of ‘Informa PLC’, the global exhibitions, events, academic publishing, and business intelligence group, announced on Sunday the acquisition of ‘Sahara Expo’, one of Egypt’s longest standing exhibitions, dedicated to the region’s burgeoning agriculture industry.
General Manager of Informa Egypt Hany Khafagy said, “Informa aims to utilise its regional portfolio of events in the agriculture sector to ensure Sahara Expo keeps evolving, with a focus on attracting more international buyers, sellers, and thought leaders to the event in Egypt.”
Sahara Expo will join the fold of ‘Informa Exhibitions’’ agricultural portfolio which includes Agra Middle East in Dubai, Growtech in Istanbul, Turkey; Agrishow in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Farm Progress Show in Iowa, US, among others.
Khafagy said that recent announcement from the Egyptian Ministry of Planning stated that EGP 217bn was to be invested by 2022 into the sustainable development of Egypt’s agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, he noted that the main strategy points laid out in the announcement include reaching maximum economic effectiveness by allocating and using land and water resources, ensuring the growth of agricultural output by 3.6% per year; achieving high levels of food security in strategic commodities; and strengthening the competitiveness of agricultural products in world markets.
“With the acquisition of Sahara Expo, we are excited to be in a better position to support the government’s ongoing plan of sustainable development and facilitating direct investments into the Egyptian agricultural sector,” Khafagy pointed out, adding “the agricultural sector provides subsistence for more than 70% of the rural population and its exports exceed 15% of Egypt’s total exports. With agriculture being such a vital industry for the country, it is important for us to maintain the growth trajectory of Sahara Expo, and use other events in our portfolio to attract more international partners, companies, and visitors to the country.”
As part of the deal, Informa Egypt plans to retain the core Sahara Expo team to help shape and deliver future growth and innovation, according to Khafagy.
Informa has been active in Egypt since 2011 via a range of strategic and joint venture partnerships in Exhibitions, as well as in academic publishing. Informa Egypt organises major trade-focused exhibitions that connect businesses and facilitate growth in specialist markets including energy, healthcare, real estate, manufacturing, automotive, and now agriculture.
Informa have made a number of investments in 2018 with the purchase in full of eight exhibitions: MediConex, PharmaConex, and Africa Food Manufacturing from Arab African Conferences and Exhibitions (ACE); Electricx, Solar-Tec, and MEFSEC from Egytec Engineering, and Automech Formula, and Autotech from Artline ACG-ITF.
