More In Stone At Carrara

  Just a few months before the opening of the fair, more than 90 percent of the exhibitors who took part in last year’s event have already confirmed their participation. Many are asking for larger exhibition areas to showcase new materials and technology, and a high number of new Italian and foreign exhibitors are sending in their applications.
  The trend in the number of exhibitors for CarraraMarmotec confirms that the 2007 event will improve on last year’s results. In 2006, 440 exhibitors, in more than 23,000 m²/247,500 ft², offered goods and services to 20,380 professional visitors,  including 3,986 non-Italian attendees.
  The fair takes place at a positive time for the Italian exports of marble and granite, because in the first nine months of 2006, Italy exported raw and finished marble and granite for a total of 2,371,895 tons worth €1.32 billion/$1.73 billion, while imports amounted to 2,011,000 tons worth €439.7 million/$577.9 million.
  “These are positive signs, which had already come to the fore in 2006,” stated president Giancarlo Tonini, president of CarraraFiere, “but we have to wait for the end-of-year figures before we can form a final opinion. The rise in the mean value of exports is reassuring, because it gives a new lease of life to the best Italian-made products. It is a small recovery, which needs to be checked: CarraraMarmotec will be the real test.”
  The number of second-time exhibitors is extremely high, and the final number of exhibitors will be further increased by large foreign groups and many Italian companies.
  Promotional efforts for this year’s event included a mission of Italian stone-industry officials to China, organized by Toscana Promozione, during which the delegation presented CarraraMarmotec in Kunming, Shanghai and Peking.
  This was followed by promotional campaigns or participation in stone fairs in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Dubai, Egypt, India, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Turkey and the United States.
  The results of the promotional campaigns are the announced participation of a large number of delegations of attendees for CarraraMarmotec 2007, especially from U.S. stone distributors.
  “The goal is to present CarraraMarmotec to the stone-producer regions and the most important associations,” said Paris Mazzanti, CarraraFiere CEO, “to find, in conjunction with ICE (Italian Trade Commission) and the Region Tuscany, new foreign exhibitors and arrange the visit of groups and delegations of operators who seem to be extremely interested.
  “As usual, we will show to professional visitors (businessmen, architects, professionals and technicians) a far-ranging marble showcase, hosting in the large yards and modern halls all the best blocks, slabs, valuable finished products and customized items, decorative items and sculptures and all kinds of technology, including handling and lifting machinery, funerary art and marble-installation products.”