700,000 visitors, 14 hours on site, 4,000 animals… The Agricultural Show in five figures

The Agricultural Show, which opens on Saturday February 25 in Paris and lasts until March 5, is a key moment for professionals in the sector, entertaining for Parisians and ideal for presidents wishing to address the sector. . No wonder, then, that the event attracts hundreds of thousands of curious people, thousands of exhibitors in addition to putting heads of state to the test.

► Emmanuel Macron, a record 14 hours at the Salon

In 2019, Emmanuel Macron walks through the aisles of the Agricultural Show for fourteen hours, the longest visit by a President of the Republic. He thus broke his own record, set the previous year at twelve hours.

In an image publicized at the time, the head of state takes a disabled pensioner in tears in his arms. In the street, act 15 of the yellow vests is in full swing, and discontent seeps into the Salon. An opponent calls on the president to get out of his bubble, another, more upset, tells him to “clear”, before being firmly dismissed by the security services.

► A must for all presidents

If François Mitterrand never went to the Salon as president, his successors all made sure to do so. Jacques Chirac had spent until half past five with the farmers. Less than François Hollande, who stayed ten hours there in 2013, but more than Nicolas Sarkozy, whose longest stay lasted only four hours.

► 703,407 visitors, the attendance record

In 1964, when it was created, the Salon attracted 300,000 visitors. This figure has now more than doubled, the attendance record remaining that of 2014, with 703,407 visitors. In the 2010s, attendance never fell below 600,000. In 2020, the year the Show was cut short by one day (due to Covid), only 482,221 people attended.

The Salon attracts both Parisians in need of cows and professionals who go there to talk business. They take the opportunity to be seen by the general public, the media and to meet potential customers.

► 1,000 breeders

In 2023, the Agricultural Show will bring together more than 1,000 exhibitors (the record for 2013 and 2014 was 1,300) from twenty countries. Some of them will achieve up to 25% of their annual turnover during the event.

They will be divided into four “universes”. The first focuses on agricultural services and trades, while the second is dedicated to crops and plant sectors. Livestock and its sectors occupy a third universe, while the last is devoted to products from French overseas regions and the world.

► Thousands of animals

The 1,000 breeders present will be accompanied by several thousand animals. Among them, the muse of the year, the cow Ovalie, a “beautiful beast of the Salers breed aged 5 years, according to the Show website. Rustic, robust and docile, Ovalie is the perfect ambassador of her breed.

To accommodate them, astronomical quantities of food must be brought to the site: 230 tonnes of straw in 2019, as well as 100 tonnes of hay! The cows present, which are milked on site, can produce up to 40,000 liters of milk over the duration of the event.

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