The world's largest trade fair for water, sewage and waste management – IFAT 2024 – is behind us.

Time to sum up the industry event and our participation:

• IFAT Munich has over 3,100 exhibitors and over 120,000 visitors;
• the exhibition area of the fair is over 30 hectares, which is the area of three medium-sized farms in Poland;
• There were about 50 Polish stands, which is 1.6% of all exhibitors. This is definitely a poor result for a country with almost 40 million inhabitants;
• Proffico participated in the fair for the third time – the first trip was not very successful but it confirmed our belief that we can do it and we can; the second edition resulted in export to Greece and Ukraine. After the last edition, we know that we are becoming more efficient and respected for our innovation, technical logic, high quality and ingenuity. We were visited by guests from all continents, including representatives of the ministry of a G20 country, spending over an hour at our stand. All this gives us a sense of strength, reduces complexes and gives us self-confidence, although at the same time we are aware that to achieve the same effect we have to work two to three times more than German, Swiss or Scandinavian companies.

It's hard to understand, why is our national stand missing at such a large fair, where the Polish government would help small companies and start-ups to operate on the international market. In addition to developed countries such as Germany, France, Turkey, Canada, etc., such stands have also so far been held by such small countries from former communist democracies as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Unfortunately, Poland does not know how to promote itself.

And finally, a few observations:

• Globalization in the form of large corporations is noticeable. Corporations usually trade in smaller brands/companies and the effect is that such companies are immobile behemoths that are already getting lost in what they offer and on what terms;
• Problems with water quality and availability are clearly noticeable on a global scale, with an emphasis on Central and South America and Asia;
• the growth of exhibitors from China is also indisputable. Their products are less and less inferior to European products in terms of quality. Therefore, comparing the Chinese and European work ethic\ I rather expect further expansion of the Middle Kingdom;
• grey water, water recovery, closed circuits are undoubtedly the future that will not pass us by.