Feria Valencia, the organisers of Cevisama, which was due to run on 13 to 17 June in Valencia, Spain, have announced that it is being postponed until 27 February to 3 March 2023.
They say that a “critical situation” in the ceramics sector makes it unfeasible to hold the fair this year.
The Spanish show had already been rescheduled from its traditional February date, on account of the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now being further delayed because of a crisis currently affecting the ceramics industry, which is facing huge uncertainty and unpredictability following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The war has exacerbated the energy crisis that ceramics manufacturers have had to deal with since the middle of last year. With the outbreak of war, the prices of gas have spiked sharply and unsustainably and the industry, which is gas intensive, is already seeing stoppages in production and adjustments to the workforce in the form of furloughs.
The situation is made worse by the fact that most of the clay used by the sector is sourced from Ukraine, in addition to increases in the costs of other raw materials and logistics. The sector has also lost the Russian market, which was the 12th largest export market for Spanish ceramics last year.
In view of this, and despite the fact that there has been a very positive response to the fair from prospective visitors (25% more visitors had pre-registered than in previous years), exhibitors had been pulling out to the point that it was no longer sufficiently attractive to warrant the fair taking place.
“We are very sorry for the problems the cancellation may cause, but we have an emergency situation which is preventing us from going ahead with the industry’s grand re-grouping we were so looking forward to. We do not want to let down the trade visitors who come every year from all over the world,” Cevisama Director Carmen Álvarez says.
The organising committee has therefore approved new dates for Cevisama of 27 February to 3 March 2023. This means that the fair will return to the time of year when it traditionally takes place – the first quarter of the year. It will be the first such event of the year and an ideal time to show new products.
With support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Feria Valencia will also make new investment in next year’s show. This will enable a qualitative leap forward in terms of the offering and content on show. It will also help ensure that the most important buyers from Spain and elsewhere are encouraged to attend.
