"A successful meeting point"

Spread over three days, the 24th edition of the Zoosphere pet supplies trade show was held in the Expoforum convention and exhibition centre in St. Petersburg. The show has been staged every year since 1992 and has a good reputation as the foremost pet supplies fair in eastern Europe. Around 200 foreign companies had their own exhibition booths, including firms from Brazil, the Czech Republic, China, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Turkey. The exhibition area covered more than 13 000 m2. ­"Zoo­sphere 2015 proved that the pet industry is of interest to a wide audience and a promising market for businesses," commented the organisers.

The business programme focused chiefly on a business forum for top managers in which the main topics were sales management, e-commerce, brand promotion through Internet resources, franchising in the pet industry and pet insurance. For the first time at Zoosphere, the Union of Pet Industry Enterprises (UPE) led a round-table discussion, which covered questions about legislation in the field of veterinary medicine, customs issues and the pet product business in Crimea among other things. 

A veterinary conference has traditionally formed part of the Zoosphere programme, attracting veterinarians from across the country. The International Grooming Competition, organised under the patronage of the European Grooming Association (EAG) and with the support of the companies Wahl Rus, Beaphar and Polidex, broke new ground this time by allowing entries for cats as well as dogs. Around 200 groomers from Russia, Belarus and Lithuania were among the participants. 
The best biotope aquariums were chosen at the booth of the company Unitex. Further highlights of the show included a conference for operators of cat and dog kennels and breeders, which attracted representatives of 3 500 kennels from Russia, and the international scientific student conference, at which students and post-graduates presented interesting scientific research findings.