Potato Europe 2011

Over 6000 hardy souls braved the elements to attend the 2011 exhibition held, this year, at Tournai in Belgium over two days in early September.

White van man, Rob Herbert, was in the vanguard again, charged with the complex task of erecting the stand in yet another different pattern, as well as ensuring the electrics were compatible, the drinks, hot and cold, were on tap and the carpets were laid.

As usual, everything went smoothly; we ran out of adaptors, one wall was deemed unnecessary and the fridge decided to make its’ own way down the stairs from the Pommies new office.

Never the less, as the heavens opened, we trudged our way across another boggy car park, lined with vehicles sinking down to their axles, for an engaging 2 days on the stand. Both days were extremely busy with a cross section of French and Belgium growers, continental customers and the usual stream of seed customers waiting to talk to Dave Scott.

As we were staying in the Pommies home town of Lille, we were treated to typical French fare in the evenings; The Australian Bar, The Rose and Crown Pub and a
Thai meal.

The Thai meal proved to be quite a long winded affair relieved by the discovery that the roof was retractable, presumably for smokers. Unfortunately, Shaun was given the controls and proceeded to open the roof even though it was pouring with rain. Needless to say, he was on the covered half of the table!

Some of the party (the lucky ones?) caught the 3pm Eurostar from Lille and we arrived back at Doncaster station at 5.45pm. Amazing!

Less amazing was that Mr Uttridge managed, yet again, to lose his travel documents. Last time it was his passport, this time his train tickets. Some how he managed to blag his way onto both trains. No one had volunteered to stay with him!

Many thanks to everyone for their efforts over the several days of the show.

For further information please contact:

David Higgins
The Higgins Group
Business
Tel: 01302 770591
dhiggins@higgins.co.uk