“The 988 exhibitors at this years event represents a new record, because never before have so many come to the expo to showcase the best that Hungarian farmland has to offer and the treasures of the Carpathian Basin”, Deputy Agriculture Minister István Nagy said at the closing ceremony y of the 78th National Agriculture and Food Industry Exhibition and Fair (OMÉK). The OMÉK expo, which was supplemented by an additional trade day, ended on Sunday, 24 September.
“Agriculture is one of the national economy’s key sectors”, Mr. Nagy highlighted at Hungary’s largest agriculture expo, highlighting the fact that more exhibitors than ever before had taken art in this year’s exhibition and praising the wide range of products exhibited by the fair’s partner country, japan, indicating that Hungary can be proud of the fact that our food industry products have succeeded in breaking into the Japanese market, which is known for demanding very high quality. According to the Deputy Minister, this year OMÉK displayed the unity of producers, processors and consumers.
“We have reached out with success to future generations, in view of the fact that the large numbers of young people, schoolchildren and college and university students who visited the expo brought new colour to the OMÁK’s history”, Managing Director of the Agricultural Marketing Centre (AMC) László Daróczi said. He also spoke about the fact that the OMÉK could boast traditions, treasures and values that we inherited from our ancestors, and which we follow not only out of respect, but which must also continue to focus on in the interests of our development and maintaining our competitiveness, in line with the challenges of the age.
30% more primary and secondary school children visited the exhibition thanks to free admission, in addition to which thousands of college and university students were also able visit the OMÉK expo free of charge.
At the closing ceremony, Mr. Nagy and Mr. Daróczi presented OMÉK Visitors’ Award, as well as the Ministerial Grand Prix. Each year, a Visitors’ Award is presented to the exhibitor that receives the most votes form the public. This year, the award went to milk products promotion truck on the stand of the National Milk Board. The OMÉK Ministerial Grand Prix was presented to Kőrös-Maros Biofarm’s bio-beer, which is made from Einkorn wheat.
At the end of the closing ceremony, Deputy Minister Nagy and mayor of Karcag Szilvia Kovács presented an award to this year’s winner of the Hungary’s Most Beautiful Kitchen Garden competition, which was launched five years ago.