Euroflora triples its spaces with 6 million investment

A total investment, for the Porto Antico company, which organises the show, of more than €6 million, against an almost threefold increase in exhibition space, compared to the previous editions, held in 2018 and 2022 in the parks of Genoa Nervi. Euroflora 2025, the 13th International Flower and Plant Show, will open to the public on Thursday, in Liguria's capital city, and will continue until 4 May, with a location that takes it back to its origins, i.e. the area of the former Fiera del Mare (now transformed, thanks to the waterfront redevelopment by Renzo Piano), with the set-ups in the Jean Nouvel pavilion and the new sports hall. To which are added a floating exhibition on the marina, as well as the entire area of Piazzale Kennedy, overlooking the sea, for years used as a car park and now being transformed to become a permanent urban park.

In short, the exhibition will have no less than 85,000 square metres of indoor and outdoor space (previously 35,000), with 154 gardens from all over the world (in 2022 there were 90), which can be visited along a route that stretches over 4 kilometres. New entries include the Egyptian Museum, with the Pleasure Garden, the Kingdom of Bhutan and the world of research, with the Italian Institute of Technology and the Space V greenhouse, coordinated by astronaut Franco Malerba.

The overall investment, confirms Mauro Ferrando, president of Porto antico, 'will be a little over 6 million, even though, with the organisational and set-up activities, we have tried to keep costs as low as possible. After all, we are on an area that has more or less tripled in size and is much more complex, compared to that of Nervi, both in terms of the type of sites, with the palasport and the Nouvel pavilion, and the costs involved in setting up a 30,000 square metre clearing, which is Piazzale Kennedy, which was handed over to us unfinished (the preparation of Euroflora began when work was still in progress, albeit in its final stages, to move the car park underground and make room for the urban park, ndr)".

The exhibition, Ferrando goes on to remind us, is "the only Italian appointment among the European floralies recognised by Aiph (International association of horticultural producers)", and is an important event for the Italian floricultural market. National floricultural production, moreover, is growing: it amounts (according to Istat data referring to 2023) to 3.14 billion and represents 4.7% of Italian agricultural production (it was 4.5% in 2022). In particular, flower crops amount to 1.46 billion euro (in value, 2.2% of Italian agricultural production) and nursery crops would have confirmed 1.67 billion euro (in value, 2.5% of Italian agricultural crops).

With these numbers, Italy is the third largest producer in the EU, after the Netherlands and Spain. The value of exports is around 1.2 billion euros (equal to 1.4% of total agri-food exports) and the Belpaese is confirmed as the second European power, and third world power, with (a production value equal to 5.2% of world exports. The sector's trade balance is positive, with an estimated surplus to date of +315 million euros. Consistent trade with France (+220 million), Germany (+ 150 million approx.), Switzerland (+ 58 million approx.) and Great Britain (+ 44 million). The heaviest balances for the Italian balance of trade come from trade with Spain (-25 million), and the Netherlands (-400 million or 69% of total imports into Italy).