The final figures were made public by Dr Reinhard Grandke, CEO of the German Agricultural Society DLG, at the opening of the show. The figures were even higher than at the 2008 edition, when a lot of companies from the poultry industry were also present in Hanover. The majority of the exhibitors come from Germany (1.161), with 778 coming from abroad. Other European countries like the Netherlands (147), France (92), Italy (59), Denmark (56) and the UK (52) are well represented too. China’s leap forward into the global agricultural business could be noted with a substantial rise in exhibitors to 52. More records were broken, Dr Grandke said. Gross occupied exhibition floor space is almost 18 hectare (2pc up from the 2008 edition). In addition, it is expected that visitor numbers will exceed 120.000 people.