Organisers are celebrating yet another record-breaking event after visitor numbers to Nampo Harvest Day 2018 increased for the sixth consecutive year.
According to outgoing Nampo Organising Committee chairperson Cobus van Coller, a total of 82 817 visitors attended the event near Bothaville in the Free State, up from 78 648 last year.
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He ascribed the higher numbers to consumers and international visitors rather than farmers.
Van Coller said that this year’s event had been highly successful, adding: “You don’t hear anything negative”.
Assistant manager for the Nampo and Marketing division at Grain SA, Du Toit Wessels, told Farmer’s Weekly that while they had been extremely pleased at the good turnout, the most important outcome for them remained the value of the business conducted during the event.
He said that the organisers’ work was far from over, as they had begun taking stock of results. They had sent survey forms to all exhibitors and hoped to have final figures within a month on exhibitor and visitor spend as well as business turnover at the event.
“Usually about 70% of participants respond,” he said.
The organisers were also hard at work putting together the inaugural Nampo Cape edition, which would take place in Bredasdorp in the Western Cape from 12 to 14 September.
Nampo Harvest Day was first held in 1967 and the event has taken place at Nampo Park near Bothaville since 1974.
According to Grain SA, an economic impact study conducted in 2009 showed that exhibitor turnover had been about R1 billion, with more than R10 million spent in Bothaville itself by visitors and exhibitors.
