Parallel with the trade show, India Organic 2007 had and important event International Seminar Series with the main theme “INDIAN ORGANIC AGRIBUSINESS…@THRESHOLD OF GROWTH was held on 29th and 30thNovember 2007 in the Symposium hall of NASC (ICAR) complex, New Delhi. The Seminar was jointly organised by the International Competence Centre For Organic Agriculture (ICCOA) and Research Institute Of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland.

The Seminar was attended by 150 delegates and had 30 International (Germany, Belgium, Italy, UK & Sri Lanka) and National experts (from public and private sector) who presented during the seminar. These experts also provided full paper of their presentation, which was released as a publication during the Inauguration of the Trade Fair.

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At the India Organic 2007, the Buyer-Seller meets was a grand success. Large number of participants showed interest to have such meets and ICCOA was able to organize 128 such meets. Of this 58 B2B meets were held with foreign buyers directly and the remaining ones were between Indian buyers and Indian sellers. The SIPPO delegation with 9 buyers was the center of attraction in the B2B meeting. In addition to the B2B meetings organized by ICCOA, many buyers had direct discussion with the Exhibitors successfully. This activity alone is also a great pointer towards the success of a trade show as these B2B meets brings the business value of the fair. Another interesting feature of this meeting was that one of the buyers from Switzerland had a marathon discussion with one of the leading organic farmer groups from Maharastra and had a deal.

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To drive home the most important part of organic agriculture, namely, consumption of organic foods, the fair had a sprawling organic food court. This helped ‘Celebrate’ an Organic Food festival by serving cuisines from various parts of the country all prepared with organic food ingredients only. Entirely handled ably by Panchavati, the food festival was a great hit.

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Workshop on “Marketing of Organic Products”, “Organic Cotton” and “Organic Farmers Meet” were organized successfully by ICCOA in co-ordination with Hivos, Organic Exchange and National Horticulture Mission (NHM) respectively.

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On the 30th of November 2007 evening, invited guests had a sumptuous organic dinner hosted by ICCOA in collaboration with ITS and NAFED.

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Hon’ble Smt. Renuka Chowdhary, Minister for Culture, Women and Child welfare, Government of India, Smt. Pramila Rani Brahma, Minister for Agriculture and Horticulture, Government of Assam and many Members of Parliament, Government of India, visited the event. A large number of senior officers from the Central and State governments also visited the trade fair.

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All women troupe of 11 members of “Kamsale” from Karnataka performed spectacular cultural show during the event.

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Hon’ble Smt. Premila Rani Brahma, Minister for Agriculture and Horticulture, Government of Assam was the Chief Guest during the closing ceremony. The neutral committee comprising 2 foreigners and 1 Indian was formed to select the best pavilions and individual exhibitors. As per the committee’s recommendation, the best Pavilion Award was given to “Karnataka Pavilion” sponsored by Department of Horticulture, Government of Karnataka. The best stall award, 1st runner up and 2nd runner up stall awards were given away to “Sresta”, “Morarka Foundation” and “Department of Food Security and Agriculture, Government of Sikkim” respectively.

Many important National and International personalities spent a considerable amount of time going around the stall were pleasantly surprised by the progress of the organic movement in the country.

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• Distinctly identifying certified organic participants and the non-certified ones.
• Exclusive enclosures for State pavilions and space for sponsors.
• International Seminar series with interesting topics addressed by International and National experts.
• Exclusive workshop for small holders and NGO’s on “Marketing of Organic Products”
• Workshop on “Organic Cotton”
• Farmers meet co-ordinated by NHM
• An exclusively organic menu served at the Organic food festival with cuisines from different regions of the country.
• Participation by all stakeholders of Organic Agriculture
• Greater number of foreign buyers B2B meets.
• Buyer-seller meets (B2B) meets crossed the 125 mark (128 B2B meets).
• Parallel events included among others: Organic Food Festival and Cultural Shows
• IFOAM India members meeting
• ICCOA’s BOD and General Assembly meetings

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1. Mr.Manoj Kumar Menon, Executive Director
2. Mr.Suresh, K.T., Manager, Organic Conversion, ICS & PGS
3. Dr.Seetharam Annadana, Consultant
4. Ms.Lakshmi, Accounts Manager
5. Mr.Muralidhara, N., Information Manager
6. Ms.Swarna, R., Deputy Manager
7. Mr.Rohit, Manager, Projects
8. Ms.Rashmi Mole, Secretary to ED
9. Ms..Sushma
10. Mr.Prashanth, Office Assistant

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