The cathedral city of Cologne, which plays host to the international garden show, once again received praise from exhibitors at spoga+gafa 2008.
Exhibitors from Oase to Wolf-Garten have declared themselves happy with the quality of visitors to spoga+gafa 2008 even though the world market place for the green sector registered fewer admissions than two years ago (38,600 compared to 48,168 last year).

Oliver P. Kuhrt, executive vice-president Koelnmesse GmbH described the quality of the visitors, and the increased international presence, as 'striking, positive features'.

Jürgen Hörmann, ceo Wolf-Garten said gafa 2008 was a complete success.
He said: "On all three days we had more trade visitors than ever before on our stand in Hall 7 and in the open grounds. Wolf-Garten closed gafa 2008 with a very good feeling for the 2009 season."

Ralf Gaa, executive director SABO-Maschinenfabrik, a John Deere company, said: "Although there were fewer visitors than two years ago, we still had many good discussions. The visit to spoga+gafa has been worthwhile for us."

Ansgar Paul, executive director Oase said its products were 'very well received'. Overall we are satisfied – it was a good fair," he added.

Axel Schröder, marketing director/manager Scheurich said: "The fair went outstandingly well. We had many international customers. The quality of the customers was very high."
The only disappointing aspect from Scheurich's perspective was the absence of private garden centres.
"We were expecting much more here," he said,"there were also very few customers from the USA."

Hans-Jürgen Herr, executive director Weber-Stephen Deutschland said: "We had at least as many customers and high-quality discussions as at the last event and are optimistic for 2009."

This year's spoga+gafa included 2,155 exhibitors from 57 countries.

According to the organisers, visitors liked the 'Boulevard of Excellence' - a showcase of premium suppliers; 'spoga+gafa in action' – open grounds where to try out new products from the motorised garden appliance sector; and 'Green Italy' – a forum to meet and greet companies from the Italian garden market.