BCPC: An Uncertain Future
17 December 2008 For more than 40 years, it has been an annual fall ritual for the agrochemicals industry companies and representatives to attend the British Crop Protection Council’s (BCPC) annual Congress. The event typically featured hundreds of exhibitors and attracted thousands of attendees from around the globe, first to Brighton, England, and more recently, to Glasgow, Scotland. For many in the industry, BCPC was the agrochemicals market’s premier meeting place and trade show, an annual rite of late autumn.
But this has all changed in 2008. Just as Farm Chemicals International was going to press, a last-minute e-mail appeared in the in-boxes of several of our editors. “BCPC has been forced to cancel its annual Congress,” said the letter. “The move follows a particularly disappointing commercial uptake for both exhibition space and hospitality facilities which show no signs of recovery.”
Future In Question
The letter went on to say that the Congress has become a loss-making activity for BCPC in recent years as industry consolidation has reduced the number of potential exhibitors and delegates that could attend the meeting. “In particular, BCPC has been unable to recoup the large losses it incurred following the 2001 Brighton Congress, which, coming shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, suffered very low attendance from overseas delegates.”
As a result of the drain this dropping attendee/exhibitor base has put on BCPC funds, the group has been forced to put its commercial arm, BCPC Ltd., into receivership and could possibly jeopardize future publication of the group’s 12 titles, including The Pesticide Manual and the Manual of Bio Control Agents.
A day after this initial letter came through, FCI editors received a more personal note from Dr. Colin Ruscoe, chairman and exhibitions director for BCPC Ltd. “I can only extend my apologies that you have put effort into the event that has been wasted,” wrote Ruscoe. “You will be receiving further communications from BCPC in the next few days which will give you more information.”
At presstime, these further communications had not arrived and attempts to reach BCPC’s offices by FCI staff were unsuccessful.
To follow this developing story in more detail and learn the latest news, please visit www.fc-international.com or see our magazine’s weekly e-newsletter.
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