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The `Carrefour International du Bois' timber trade show in Nantes, France, focuses on buyers and sellers of wood. This year's show doubled '94 edition
Trade shows have one major goal: to get buyers and sellers together. But a French fair has taken a different path from the one most wood industry expos follow. Instead of selling machinery and supplies to wood processors, exhibitors at the Carrefour International du Bois in Nantes are selling logs, lumber and other wood products to wood processors.
Carrefour organizers say the event is unique in Europe. A consortium of French public agencies at both the local and national levels contributed to the trade fair's costs to strengthen Nantes' position as a wood-trading center. Carrefour, crossroads in French, drew some 200 producers of lumber, panels and engineered wood products, along with log exporters. Besides the French, exhibitors came from the United States, Malaysia, Ghana, Brazil, Iran, Cameroon, Belgium, Spain and Finland. The American Hardwood Export Council was a co-sponsor of the trade fair.
The show doubled in size from the previous Carrefour in 1994. About 10% of exhibitors came from outside France. Two regional groups undertook putting on the event, the Port of Nantes-St. Nazaire and Atlanbois, which promotes the wood industry in the Pays de la Loire region. This region consists of several French departments in the lower Loire Valley.
In addition, the French Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries helped subsidize the event. Nearly two dozen French wood industry professional organizations also participated in the Carrefour, along with the regional Chamber of Commerce, the National Wood Center (Centre National du Bois), and the Ministry of Industry.
Technical workshops concurrent...