By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent

HANOVER, Germany — While Agritechnica 2009, the largest farm show in the world, boasted large vendors such as Massey Ferguson, John Deere, Fendt, Valmet, Valtra, Krone, Claas and others, there were a few feed specialties and a very few displays highlighting individual vendors.

One such booth shared information about plant specialties and featuring Christine Eger. She was sharing information about her herbs and herbal tea, which she creates and sells privately to individuals.

“I have been doing this for 13 years,” Eger said.

She has been in the agricultural business and learned how to work with herbs. To create her blends, she begins with growing the herbs, then dries them and crumbles the herbs into the tea. “The teas sell only in Germany,” she added.

Besides those, she does also have a few private individuals who buy from India, Africa and England. Agritechnica was the prefect venue to share information about her product, because more than 350,000 expert visitors attended this year’s show, with a total of 77,000 international visitors, according to Malene Conlong of Agritechnica.

“The results of a neutral survey of visitors revealed that the largest contingents of international visitors came from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland, France and Italy,” she said. “The numbers from Central and Eastern Europe remained relatively constant, at approximately 13,000 investors from these countries. Most of the visitors from this region hailed from Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Ukraine.

“The further increase in the number of expert visitors from North America is also remarkable. Some 3,600 agricultural specialists crossed the Atlantic for the exhibition this year. There were also distinct rises in visitor numbers from Spain, Brazil and India. Visitors came from, all together, 81 different countries.

“Almost 30,000 machinery dealers and distributors and their staff visitors came to Hanover, as well as over 26,000 from the machinery manufacturing and supply industry. In addition, some 23,000 farm contractors from home and abroad visited,” Conlong added.

Preliminary figures showed that more than 2,300 companies from 46 countries came to Agritechnica to share machinery, equipment, spare parts and accessories.

The good news is not just the older generation came to the show. Young producers took advantage of the Young Farmer Day, with more than 10,000 farmers and students from Germany and other countries.