Renato Pujatti is President of Pordenone Fiere S.p.a., the organiser of AquaFarm, the exhibition on aquaculture, algaculture, shellfish farming and the fishing industry which took place in February in Pordenone.
He coordinates “FIERE IN RETE” of AEFI – the Italian Association of Expos and Exhibitions, a project where he promotes the networking of exhibition centers. As entrepreneur, he is former President of the local Industrial Association and former President of Finest SPA, a company that supports international projects of firms based in North-East Italy towards the neighboring emerging markets. He was part of the Technical Committee of EXPO MILAN 2015 as Internationalisation specialist.
It is safe to say that the fourth rendition of AquaFarm has been a brilliant success. Are you happy with how AquaFarm has performed this year?
Absolutely. We had more exhibition space, more exhibitors, more visitors, more conferences, more students, more media coverage. Overall, more satisfaction from everyone, and I may say more happiness too.
Do you know the statistics for this year’s event?
Yes, we had 120 exhibitors and sponsors, two pavilions with 2,900 square metres of booths, 30 conferences, at times four running in parallel. We had 130 unique speakers and 15 percent more visitors compared to last year.
What are your plans for next years’ event? Is there anything in addition that you would like AquaFarm to cover?
We are currently working on this. The date has been defined, the next exhibition will be 17th and 18th February 2021. Our objective is to strengthen our role as the community event for the aquaculture industry in the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins as well as for the countries that border them.
We would love to find out more about you as well. What led you to establish AquaFarm?
First of all, our region, Friuli Venezia Giulia is the largest production area in Italy for trout farming. So, the aquaculturist is a familiar figure for us and we had mulled over organising a tradeshow for the sector for some time.
Secondly, one of our partners had organised conferences for a past aquaculture event, and they had an interesting project to revive the project and were just looking for a place to do it. Thirdly, it happens that the president of the Italian Fishfarmers Association has his farms around Pordenone, so we really hadn’t the need to explain who we are. It was really a fortunate combination: right opportunities, right people, right place, right time.
What do you think is the biggest issue that the aquaculture industry will face in the next five years, and what can we do to combat and resolve these issues?
Actually, there are two main issues, from what I listen from farmers and providers. First come the changes in the environment, both for climate and for the direct human action: we have underestimated pollution for too long, and then the plastic issue exploded and is now a massive concern. So, aquaculture must evolve, adapt and still be able to feed the hunger of the growing world population.
Secondly is the ideologically driven attack against every food of animal origin, that tends to translate in growing bureaucracy complexity. Fish and molluscs are one of the least processed foods consumed today in the world (the percentage of it consumed raw is comparable only to some horticulture products and fruit). We must defend aquaculture as the most sustainable way to produce it in every arena.
AquaFarm’s theme for 2020 has been innovation and environmental sustainability. What do you think we can do to prove to the consumer that aquaculture is, in fact, a very sustainable industry?
In four terms: education in schools and after, information, targeted communication and collaboration between all the players, from public administration to farmers, passing through academia, providers, business, consumer-oriented tradeshows and vertical media.
We have also seen, during our time at AquaFarm, that the exhibition is featuring more and more great conferences which discuss a variety of issues and topics facing the aquaculture industry. Do you plan on broadening this range and featuring more conferences in future renditions of the exhibition?
Our objective from the first edition of the show has been to provide the highest level of content on our agenda as is possible. We will persist in this, keeping in mind that we are not a scientific organisation, but a business community show with an excellent level of scientific colleagues.
There is certainly an opportunity to expand this exhibition throughout the Mediterranean, where currently there are not many events like this. Will you expand into areas like Spain and France, within this Mediterranean area?
No. We are an Italian and a Pordenone-based event. We are internationally oriented for sure, but our base is here. We welcome everyone from everywhere in the world. We customarily host exhibitors, speakers and visitors coming from more than 50 countries, from USA to Australia, passing through everywhere in between.
We welcome international collaboration, but we have a lot of other pavilions and conference rooms available. And the food and the people in Pordenone and working at AquaFarm are of a really fine top class, as you probably noticed.
