- More than 160 brands from 16 countries on more than 11.000 square meters
- More than 20 thousand visits from 50 countries and all states of Brazil
- 132 speakers from 10 countries and 71 hours of content
- IFAT international partners such as DWA, ISWA, BID, RETech, AIDIS, APIHA, NWP, GWP and GIZ on site
The first edition of IFAT Brasil, the International Trade Fair for Water, Sewerage, Drainage and Waste Recovery Solutions, was a watershed event for Brazil’s sanitation market, presenting the main global technologies to contribute to the goal of universalizing water and sewerage services to the Brazilian people by the year 2033. The event, organized by Messe Muenchen do Brasil between April 24 and 26 in São Paulo, brought together more than 160 national and international brands from 16 countries.
During the three-day event, the São Paulo Expo welcomed more than 20 thousand visitors from 50 countries. The audience was considered by the exhibitors to be highly qualified, as it was made up of representatives from city halls, state, municipal and federal departments, agencies and regulatory bodies, environmental engineers, private water, sewage and solid waste management operators, environmental engineers, industry entrepreneurs, development agencies, investors, academia and research and innovation institutes and startups.
“We have achieved our goal of connecting the main environmental solutions and technologies with all the stakeholders in sanitation, providing the best environment for relationships, knowledge and business for the exhibitors and participating professionals. Certainly, this meeting will be important for the sector, generating opportunities to improve the existing infrastructure for the installation of new structures that meet the demands of the population,” says Rolf Pickert, CEO of Messe Muenchen do Brasil.
Renan Utri Andreguetto, manager of IFAT Brasil, pointed out that environmental technology is a strong ally in achieving the universalization of treated water supply and sewage collection and treatment in Brazil and throughout the region, but also in addressing the challenges related to urban drainage and solid waste management, including the eradication of landfill sites, advancing recycling levels and its application as an energy solution. “The fair brought together the main solutions and innovations used in these areas in various countries around the world, pointing out trends and some ways in which they can be applied in the region to benefit people.”
Over 71 hours of content events
The meeting point for sanitation in Latin America, IFAT Brasil was also key to debating the main issues related to the sector, presenting cases in environmental technologies, revealing market trends, evaluating solutions to challenges in the area and bringing government, local authorities, investors and operators closer to manufacturers, industries, companies and sanitation service providers.
The IFAT Brasil International Congress, the Speakers Corners and the Innovation Pavilion, in partnership with ISLE Utilities, one of the world’s largest intelligence agencies on innovation in the water sector, promoted over 71 hours of content over the three days of the event, with the participation of 132 specialists from Brazil and abroad.
The Congress agenda included, for example, the participation of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), the National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency (ANA), the Department of Water and Electric Energy (DAEE), an authority of the São Paulo state government. International partners included: the Inter-American Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (AIDIS), the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), the German Association of Industrial Machinery and Plant Manufacturers (VDMA) and ISLE Utilities. Of the national organizations, the following organized events: Brazilian Portland Cement Association (ABCP), ABES-RS (Brazilian Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Rio Grande do Sul Section), ABIMAQ (Brazilian Association of the Machinery and Equipment Industry), ABIOGÁS (Brazilian Biogas Association), ABREMA (Brazilian Association of Waste and Environmental Companies), ABREN (Brazilian Waste Energy Recovery Association), Brazil-Germany Chamber (AHK do Brasil) and Instituto Trata Brasil.
The Innovation Pavilion was the epicenter of the latest discoveries and technological advances in the sector, showing the potential for growth and better service provision in sanitation. The IFAT Brasil Innovative Technology Award was held there, honoring companies (LG Sonic – Netherlands; Colifast – Norway; Renix – Canada) for their technologies and contributions that are transforming the market. This initiative was attended by the Netherlands Water Partnership and Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua as main sponsors; and SABESP and SANEPAR as institutional sponsors and juries of the competition.
The Speakers Corners attracted an audience interested in learning about the results of technologies applied by pioneering and leading companies in the environmental technology sector: Acqua Expert, B&F Dias, Bentley, Huber, Provedal, Sparkio, and Vibropac.
University Challenge
IFAT Brasil hosted the first edition of the University Challenge, an important global engineering student competition promoted by the German Water, Wastewater and Waste Association (DWA), which arrived in Brazil with the institutional support of the German House of Science and Innovation (DWIH) São Paulo.
The eight groups made up of engineering students carried out tasks in different disciplines, such as walking around the fair’s European companies area and choosing two solutions that could be implemented in Brazilian cities. For students Arthur Anhaia, Maria Morais and Murillo Bednarczuk, from the 5th period of the civil engineering course at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), taking part in the challenge and finding out about the solutions proposed by the companies broadened their view of the market by understanding how the technologies are implemented.
“We came to learn more about sanitary structuring. And at IFAT Brasil, we discovered that the solutions go far beyond sanitary structuring. We found applications in hydraulics, fluid mechanics and other areas that we studied in our course,” said the students. “The experience was incredible and we’re going to take a lot of lessons back to our degree,” they concluded.
Check out the testimonials of some of the exhibitors who took part in IFAT Brasil 2024:
“SABESP programmed 19 courses, offered over the three days. More than 50 people took part in each of them, with total interactivity. Approximately 1,000 people took part in this initiative, which demonstrates the visitors’ interest in essentially technical information. IFAT is one of the world’s largest trade fairs in the sector. And for SABESP, an exponent in the area of sanitation in São Paulo and a reference for the whole of Brazil, participation was fundamental. We met potential partners, always with a favorable interactivity. It was an opportunity to show our company’s demands and generate an even closer relationship with the technical public, as well as promoting various understandings with suppliers.”
Cristina Knörich Zuffo – Superintendent of Research, Development and Innovation at SABESP
ISWA participates in events to help provide the solid waste industry a platform to meet, exchange knowledge and opportunities. Partnership with IFAT allows us to do this more effectively, and in specific IFAT Brasil has been very useful to meet with local brazilian and regional players in South America, including our national member ABREMA and the ISWA Latin America Chapter. The congress attached to the event was a fascinating insight into the state of the Brazilian waste management industry and its challenges, with interesting events and speakers on advanced topics such as composting and recycling, but just as importantly on the work that needs to be done to close the remaining dumspites and ensure that at minimum all waste in being treated properly. Brazil is the 4th largest generator of waste in the world, and with this comes great responsibility. But also opportunities – and with the mix of local and international companies, policy makers and industry representatives, that is what we have found here in Sao Paulo!
Jose Uribe, Operations Director at ISWA
We were surprised, we didn’t expect the number of qualified visitors we had at our stand, not just Brazilians, but many Spanish speakers. I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Renan Andreguett on his roadshow to Latin America. It was very important because we have everything it takes to be a benchmark in the region. We’ll definitely be here again next time.
Estela Testa – president of Sindesam
“As a German company, we have attended every edition of IFAT in Germany. That’s why this fair is extremely familiar to us. When we heard there was going to be the first Brazilian edition, we immediately decided to take part, with the intention of getting to know the event as part of the culture of the national market. Many of our clients were unfamiliar with it worldwide. We decided to invite them to visit us to take part in our decision. We were rewarded with a very busy fair, with a good level of visits and technical consultations, resulting from a professional audience.”
Erick Vitorino – Managing Director of ACO
“We at Albrecht were very pleased to take part in this first edition of IFAT Brasil. It really was surprising, extraordinary! For both exhibitors and visitors, it was a very enriching event. We can only be grateful for the opportunity to have this event here in Brazil.”
Christine Albrecht Althoff – Managing Director Albrecht
“We had high expectations of IFAT because we had already been to the fair in other countries and knew how strong it was. And we wanted to see if this would translate to Brazil. We thought the choice of venue and the partnership with M&T Expo was very good because the combination of the two brought in a lot of visitors. In short, the fair far exceeded our expectations. What also caught our attention was that we had a high number of technical visitors and that was excellent. There were times when we didn’t even have enough space to accommodate everyone on the stand.”
William Padilha – Director of New Business at the Ambiensys Group
“Ambipar’s main objective in this first national edition of IFAT is to position the company as a global solutions platform, focusing on waste management, recovery and circularity, as well as the management and conscious use of water and effluents. Without a doubt, our participation is generating potential leads.”
Juliana Coutinho – Ambipar’s commercial manager
“This fair totally met our expectations. It’s natural to compare it with other events we’ve been to, and we realized that at IFAT the quantity of visitors is on a par with the quality of the public, unlike other events, where there are a lot of visitors, but few of them are actually potential customers. Our aim, for a first edition, is to get a feel for what the market is currently looking for. That’s why we’re taking part in this event with the aim of demonstrating products, listening to what customers want and networking. In other words, we are measuring the temperature of this market, which is undoubtedly technical. And IFAT proved to be a good thermometer.”
Roberto Horii – Business Development Manager at Atlas Copco
“As it is already a well-known and respected trade fair abroad, B&F Dias decided to bet on this first opportunity for the event in Brazil. There was some doubt as to whether we would get a good return or not and we were surprised by the number of opportunities that were generated and the quality of the visitors. We will definitely take part in the next edition. We received a lot of visits from people from Latin America and managed to get closer to an audience that was a bit distant for us.”
Felipe Medeiros – technical-commercial manager of the Wastewater Division at B&F Dias
“We’re very pleased with the fair, with many new contacts. Our nebulizer cannons for containing particles in the atmosphere are being very well received by the public.”
André Felipe Costa de Souza – CEO of CHB Rental
“I can say that our presence at this fair was very good in every way: in terms of organization, attendance, results and publicity. In my opinion, holding two simultaneous fairs contributed to the increase in visitors and created a healthy synergy between the two audiences, who came from all over Brazil and were willing to generate good business. One fair worked very well with the other. I believe that the next IFAT will be bigger. It’s not a quantitative fair, but a qualitative one, attracting professionals. This is the audience that interests us. A fair of IFAT’s level speeds up negotiations, generates opportunities and encourages the dissemination of technical knowledge.”
Arnaldo Casselli – Commercial Director of Envimat
“The first IFAT brought together an audience of excellent technical quality, a fact that is not common at other fairs, which attract many onlookers. It was a well-targeted fair, which was well publicized and attracted foreign visitors. With a more select audience, we were able to give better attention to everyone who visited us. In addition, IFAT helped us to establish our brand, because we wanted to present the new GF+FGS identity. We were able to make effective negotiations, which could bear good fruit after the fair.”
Adriano Meirelles – Commercial Director – GF+FGS
Expectations were fully met, exceeded in fact. From the very first day, our stand was very busy. We saw a lot of people from other Latin American countries, which is very interesting, as they are always looking to export and IFAT is making this much easier. For our segment, trade fairs work a lot to strengthen relationships, which is very important for us.”
Flávio Alcantara, director of Hidro Solo
We had the opportunity to see great partners, customers, suppliers and also competitors. The quality of our visitors was exceptional. We look forward to an even bigger event next year. Thank you IFAT!
Vinicius Machado, Service Engineer at Huber do Brasil
“Most of the visitors to IFAT 2024 are already our clients and most of them work with public cleaning companies for city halls. The fair attracted professionals from all over Brazil, coming from all regions, as well as those from Mercosur. I understand that taking part in a trade fair doesn’t always make it possible to negotiate on the spot, but it does encourage networking and longer-lasting contacts. In other words, customer service at trade fairs requires time for negotiations to mature, especially when it comes to concessionaires or public companies, because everything is based on tenders. The first edition of IFAT allowed us to realize that we are facing a promising event in Brazil, maintaining the concept of the renowned editions that take place in other countries.”
Luiz Antonio Carvalho – Commercial Director at Planalto
“We’re feeling the results of this fair, as it’s the first edition. So everything is very new, but we already feel that the event has exceeded our expectations. And just like us exhibitors, the visitors are also getting to know the fair without having too many pretensions. We welcome many visitors from Mercosur, but also from all over the country, including distant states such as Pará, Alagoas and Rio Grande do Sul. Of course, the vast majority are from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It’s a filtered audience, who know what they want and are looking for essentially technical knowledge. I felt that 75% of the visitors were specialized professionals. If the event takes place next year, our company will have a confirmed presence, because the market was missing a trade fair specializing in sanitation. It happened at an excellent time.”
Eduardo Coelho – partner-owner of Prensmaq
“An event that attracted many professionals and entrepreneurs from Mercosur. Of course, the number of visits from Brazilians is much higher, but our stand also attracted many Uruguayans, Canadians, Chileans and Germans. This is because IFAT is a very strong trade fair abroad that attracts a professional audience. And because of this international strength, the fair attracted a quality of audience that surprised us. And I believe that the mixture of the two fairs aroused the curiosity of the M&T Expo public, which was very good for our company. Because we were able to present our product to people who didn’t know about it. This is an event that offers information, learning and technology. As it was the first edition, it was very busy, allowing us to consolidate our commercial relationship with several clients, which we weren’t expecting.”
Juliana Vecchi – Head of Marketing at Rotex
“We think that IFAT Brasil has the potencial to become one of the biggest exhibitions for waste market in Brazil. Thanks and Congratulations to the event organizers for the support, and we’ll see you at the next edition”.
Vitória Ferreira, Internal Sales of Steinert
“A wonderful event, very well structured, which attracted the professionals who make decisions within the company. Around 80% of our visitors were people with extensive technical knowledge who work in public and private sanitation. We welcomed many visitors from Mercosur to our stand. So much so that I had to stay on the stand and it wasn’t possible to visit the whole fair, due to the demand for visitors that I dealt with over the three days.”
Rogerio Serodio – Commercial Director at Sigma
“By coincidence, today we had breakfast with the Swiss consul to analyze the professional level of this fair. We were already familiar with IFAT in Monique and decided to try it out. We were very pleased to experience three days with a different kind of public, with an intense volume of visitors from the beginning to the end of the period between 1pm and 8pm. Many of them were unfamiliar with our solutions and, among these visits, we received professionals looking for suppliers for public companies that are preparing for privatization. The largest concentration was Brazilian, but the event attracted people from all over Latin America. This is a public that knows what it wants. And the very well targeted publicity helped create this level of visitation.”
Isadora Cataldo – Sulzer Marketing Manager
“Our company is celebrating winning the title of Exhibitor of the Year 2024, awarded by the organizers of IFAT 2024. This is already a source of pride for our company. But there is much more to celebrate. This fair has proved to be an opportunity for us to prospect new clients and we have welcomed large institutions to our stand who are looking for viable water treatment technologies. There were opportunities to generate new partnerships and participate in new projects. The event met our expectations, including helping us to publicize our brand by virtue of our participation. In other words, it’s an event that contributes to projecting the participating companies.”
Jair José de Souza – Deputy Sales Director at Tequaly
“The fair is attracting visitors from all over Brazil and also from Mercosur, with a select profile. For an event in its first edition, IFAT 2024 surprised us with a specific audience, made up of consultants, engineers and sanitation professionals. It really is a very good fair. When we decided to take part, we didn’t set ourselves the goal of generating business, but of promoting ourselves to exactly this audience.”
Ademir Albernas – VOGELSANG Business Manager
“IFAT 2024 has met our expectations and we are receiving a large contingent of visitors, which has really justified our investments in this event. The organization of the fair has focused its efforts on communication and marketing actions, which has reinforced the quality of the audience. We were able to expand our list of new clients and prospect for new business. It was an excellently organized fair, in which we felt assisted, with all the rules very well presented and a very well-structured production. We’ll certainly be back for the next edition.”
Jesica Rocha Meneses – Marketing Director at Wilo
