The global fruit and vegetable supply chain will meet at Macfrut 2025

Egypt as the international partner, Lazio as the Partner region, potatoes in the spotlight, the International Symposium on Biotechnological Tools in Horticulture, thematic focus sessions with a new addition, ‘The Healthy Food Show’, to be presented in an innovative and spectacular way. These are just some of the novelties of the 42nd edition of Macfrut, the international trade fair for the fruit and vegetable sector, which will be held from Tuesday 6 to Thursday 8 May 2025 (it will not traditionally start on a Wednesday).

Held at the Rimini Expo Centre, it is the industry’s only international supply chain trade fair and is a unique event that combines three key elements for the sector’s growth: Business, because it is tailored to industry professionals, Networking, because it offers an exclusive free business-to-business service for exhibitors and buyers with a dedicated platform, and Knowledge, because its content is ‘certified’ by a panel of leading global experts, ensuring high-quality topics that reflect the latest developments in the sector.  

Egypt, partner country 

The presentation of the 42nd edition was held in Cairo and was attended by Michele Quaroni, Ambassador of Italy in Egypt, Matteo Zoppas, President of ICE - Italian Trade Agency, Renzo Piraccini, President of Macfrut, Giancarlo Righini, Councillor for Agriculture of the Lazio Region, and Mostafa El Naggari, Vice-President of Expolink Egypt. 

The choice of location for the presentation was no coincidence, given the international spotlight on Egypt at Macfrut 2025. This strategically located Mediterranean country has long chosen Macfrut as the world’s leading showcase for the growth of its fruit and vegetable sector. During the three-day trade fair, Egypt will play a central role with events, tastings, meetings and international presentations, supported by a large institutional and business delegation. With this international partnership, Macfrut continues to strengthen its ties with the Middle Eastern countries, which are an increasingly important market for the sector. 

Macfrut 2025 will be increasingly international in scope, with a full programme of presentations all over the world and an incoming buyer programme, in collaboration with ICE - Italian Trade Agency.

Lazio, Partner region

The Lazio region, known for its certified quality products, will take centre stage at the 42nd edition of Macfrut. ‘Carciofo romanesco del Lazio IGP’ (PGI artichoke), ‘Castagna di Vallerano DOP’ (PDO chestnut), ‘Patata dell’Alto Viterbese DOP’ (PDO potato), ‘Nocciola Romana DOP’ (PDO hazelnut), ‘Sedano Bianco di Sperlonga’ (white asparagus) and ‘Kiwi Latina IGP’ (PGI kiwi): these products, among others, will be featured at the three-day event, and will be presented in detail to an international audience as part of an extensive programme of initiatives. 

Spotlight on potatoes 

As one of the world’s most widely grown crops, with a global production area of around 18 million hectares, potatoes will be the star product of the 2025 edition. The trade fair will host the International Potato Symposium, a two-day event featuring in-depth discussions on technical, agronomic and market issues with international experts, global stakeholders and leading researchers in the sector. 

International Symposium on Biotechnological Tools in Horticulture 

For the first time, Macfrut will host the Biotechnology Symposium, sponsored by the International Society of Horticultural Science (ISHS), which promotes research in all areas of horticultural science. It will be an opportunity for plant biotechnology researchers and the production chain to meet. The aim of the three-day event is to present the latest technical and scientific information on technologies used in plant in vitro cultures, plant propagation and the creation of new, resilient and high-quality varieties.  

Themed exhibitions 

Macfrut has historically been a content-rich trade fair with themed exhibitions, coordinated by a team of experts addressing issues in modern fruit and vegetable production. Always on the lookout for innovative products and processes, this year’s event will include a narrative element to engage visitors. The most important new feature of next year’s edition is that the presentations will be transformed into a show and sensory routes will be set up within the trade fair to allow visitors to sample the products on display. At the heart of this event is the very best of fruit and vegetables, with products of the highest quality on show. 

These innovations will be showcased at The Healthy Food Show, the exhibition dedicated to the sustainable products and processing technologies used to produce functional foods with high nutritional value. The focus will be on innovative fresh fruit and vegetable products, presented in three sections: scientific popularisation, cuisine and new trends, and events and entertainment.  

The Biosolutions International Event (BIE) is the exhibition dedicated to natural products for plant protection, nutrition and biostimulation and, from the 2025 edition, also to technologies for sustainability (such as drones, DSS and AI). It has become the most important event in the sector in Southern Europe due to the fact that it is entirely dedicated to this topic: an exhibition (around 70 companies at the last edition), an International Congress, which next year will be dedicated to the peach tree, the Biosolutions Innovation Award, technical round tables for exhibitors and sponsors, and meetings with foreign biosolutions buyers for all exhibitors.  

The Plant Nursery area is the exhibition dedicated to innovations in the plant nursery industry, an occasion for meetings and discussions between nurserymen, breeders, growers, specialists and researchers. It is a vital sector for modern horticulture and variety innovation. Topical issues will be presented at the trade fair during conferences, technical seminars and workshops with the world’s leading experts, in collaboration with SOI (Italian Society for Horticultural Science) and CIVI Italia. One of the new additions is an international symposium on new fruit and citrus varieties.  

The Spices & Herbs Global Expo is the benchmark event for companies in the field of officinal, aromatic and medicinal plants and their derivatives. With a large exhibition area, meetings with international buyers, conferences, technical workshops and laboratories, it is a meeting place for all the players in the supply chain. This year’s debate will focus on the supply chain relationships between producers and consumers as a guarantee of the transparency and quality of herbal products and food supplements. The exhibition will be presented during a series of lead-up events to be held in various production areas in Italy and Europe.  

The Agrisolar Systems & Technologies exhibition will address a key issue for the future of agriculture: generating energy from the sun and from agriculture, without using productive land, to produce more electricity from solar energy. It will showcase the technical solutions currently available on the market and provide scientific and regulatory insights relevant to the sector.  

The Red Planet is an immersive format dedicated to the tomato supply chain: from seed companies to plant nurseries, from producers to modern retail managers. The event will analyse what end consumers want and provide a live, hands-on experience of how to translate consumer demands into supply chain projects.  

The water revolution The Acqua Campus exhibition will address major issues related to the irrigation sector in the third millennium: irrigation and energy efficiency in view of climate change, the use of non-conventional water to supplement water availability and the use of artificial intelligence in the irrigation sector. An area of the trade fair will be dedicated to open field irrigation technology for horticulture, with field demonstrations and technical visits.  

Macfrut Field Solutions will have an area with two dynamic test fields dedicated to fruit and vegetable technology. In addition to an exhibition, there will be technical field visits led by experts.