The 45th European Commodities Exchange took place in the Austria Centre Vienna, Bruno-Kreisky-Platz 1, from 20 to 22 October. The official opening of the event was held on Thursday, 6 p.m., in the Vienna City Hall. The Commodities Exchange Day took place on Friday, 21 October, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The annual European Commodities Exchange is an established event and a point of reference for market participants in the trade involving corn, cereals, oilseeds, and animal feed in the pan-European zone and overseas. It was first held in 1960 and is now a combination of 47 commodity exchange markets in twelve European countries, with head offices in Strasbourg , France.

With the new EU member states in Eastern Europe as additional trading partners, the event in Vienna was an important representative platform for personal and and commercial contacts. About 60 participant companies and over 2,000 professional trade visitors attended the Exchange.

The International Maritime Fumigation Organisation (IMFO) had a large stand at the event and was represented in Vienna by 13 people from 10 member companies of 9 different countries:

• » Argentina, Martin Villa of Fugran
• » Canada, Denis Bureau of Adalia
• » Egypt, John Fayez of Sawco
• » France, Chretien Schlur and Nicolas Chancerel of Serec
• » Italy, Angelo Bernini and Gianluca Bernini
• » Italy, Michele Cornacchia of Insecto
• » Romania, Remus Petcu of Euro-Ufer
• » Spain, Jose Roca of Roca Defisan
• » UK, Chris Watson of Igrox
• » Ukraine, Roy Ben-Yami and Alex Zrely of Pest Control Ltd.

From the very beginning of the day the IMFO stand become a "busy place" attracting traders to the increasingly well known IMFO name, which has become so familiar to the majority of international trading houses on the grain and other international markets during last few years.

This unique opportunity of speaking at the same time to both fumigation companies of load port and discharge port, provided the main players of the grain trade with more compelling evidence that the Port-to-Port Service, provided by the IMFO group, has tremendous practical as well as commercial value to them.

It was a real shock for some traders to learn how easily they can be misled into paying for “valueless fumigation” and the risks this can entail, when an effective and risk free alternative system is available from an IMFO member, usually at very little if any extra cost.

As Martin Villa the IMFO chairman commented “all those who visited the IMFO stand at the Commodities Exchange Day gained a clear understanding of what unifies the independent national fumigation companies from all over the world to stand under one name, the name of IMFO, and the unique benefits this provides to all the Trade “.