EXHIBITORS at the just-ended Mining, Engineering and Transport (Mine Entra) expo have called on organisers of the event to reduce exhibiting charges to avoid chasing away potential exhibitors.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
Running under the theme Exploring Linkages in the Mining Value Chain, Mine Entra attracted a total of 154 exhibitors showcasing the evolving innovations in the mining industry and of this figure, 122 were direct exhibitors whilst 31 were indirect exhibits.
This compared favourably to last year’s closing total of 91 direct exhibitors and 28 indirect exhibitors.
China and South Africa were the only foreign countries which participated at the fair and were represented by individual companies.
In terms of local participation, 54% of exhibitors came from Harare while 35% came from Bulawayo and the remainder from other cities.
Many exhibitors who spoke to NewsDay complained about the high cost of exhibiting space, saying this could have been reduced. Such high exhibiting costs, they warned, stood to chase away potential exhibitors.
For instance, a 36m2 space was being charged $4 000, they said.
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“Basically it is difficult for those coming outside Bulawayo due to transport, accommodation and other expenses,” one exhibitor who preferred anonymity said.
Exhibitors also complained about high accommodation costs, which ranged around $300 per night at some hotels during such events.
They also complained of the marathon conferences that were taking away their potential clients.
For instance, from Wednesday to Friday there were other conferences and all of them ending at around 1700hrs.
“We had a challenge with these conferences that were taking away our targeted customers. Due to these conferences, people did not have time to visit our stands,” Acol Chemical business manager — mining chemicals, Ray Chiridza said.
He, however, said they were happy with the engagements they made during the fair and promised to come back again next year.
“It was worthy coming because there were people who didn’t know us, but now they know us. We will come again next year and we hope it will be bigger than this year,” Chiridza said.
Ivory Gold operations director, Tyron Frank said the fair was not that busy especially on the first day. However, the traffic improved on the second day and they were looking forward to come again next year.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Haggie Rand exhibitor, Edward Edward, who said the platform was good for networking.
Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Company general manager, Nomathemba Ndlovu said they are confident that they should see positive results being achieved in the medium to long term as the commitment to continuous engagement and to follow through on conference resolutions was palpable.
She said this year’s show saw a significant increase in interest from players in the mining and related industries.
Just above 3 400 business visitors came into the exhibition during the course of the exhibition, compared to 2 298 over the same period last year. This represents a 48% increase,” Ndlovu said.
“The majority of exhibitors whom we have engaged with have indicated that they are pleased with the quality of attendees as they were able to discuss and seal lucrative deals,” she said.
