Organic apples focus of Interpoma's 3rd day

The sixth edition of Interpoma, to be held in Bolzano (South Tyrol, Italy), on 6-8 November 2008 will close with a focus on apple growing without using chemical pesticides or soluble fertilizers.

This topic will be addressed during the seminar ‘The Production and Market of Organic Apples’ which will be moderated by Josef Dalla Via, director of the Laimburg Center of Experimentation. 

Organic agriculture turns over 28 billion euros, of which 15 billion euros are generated in Europe alone. Italy ranks number five in the world and first in Europe for organic production (followed by Spain, Germany, and Great Britain) with 1.15 million hectares of land under cultivation and 50,276 workers directly employed in the sector. 
 

The organic apple producing sector comprises 950 organic Italian apple producers, generating a total of 75,000 tons of organic apples from 3,009 hectares of land, of which 938 are in the process of conversion to organic production.

Numerous topics will be discussed on Saturday, November 8. Among the line-up experts to take the stage here will be

- Jeanette Huber of Zukunfstinstitut Horx Gmbh (Frankfurt) who will examine the subject of “Organic Consumption – Fashion or Trend for the Future?”.

Following presentations are by Dietmar Franzelin (director of the Südtirol BIO Cooperative) and Gerhard Eberhöfer (director of Val Venosta BIO) who will describe the current state of organic apple production and marketing in South Tyrol, which harvests 29,000 tons every year, making it the foremost European producer.

The market for organic apples in Germany and the U.S. will be brought to the roundtable by Antje Kasbohm of ZMP and David Granatstein of the Washington Apple University of Wenatchee.

Marco Schlüter of IFOAM EU Groupe (Brussels) will cover the topic of “Community Regulations for the Production of Organic Apples and their impact on the Production of Organic Apples”.

Interpoma is the only event 100% dedicated to apples in Europe.

Fructidor.com will once again be there as media partner, and exhibitor during those days in Bolzano (Italy).