The Vitoria Stone Fair/Marmo+Mac Latin America will take place from February 12 to 15, 2019 and will be held once again in Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil. The show brings together stone industry members from all over the world, including quarriers and stone processors, equipment and machinery manufacturers, and suppliers of tooling and accessories for stone fabrication. Last year, the fair had 20,362 visitors, 1,926 of them international, with more than 300 exhibitors, 100 international buyers and 46 countries represented.

This year marks the show’s 47th edition, and it will feature a presentation on trends in ornamental stone, as well as the most important advances in technology in the stone-processing equipment sector. In general, it will have a focus on business, design and technology. The event offers spaces for integration between attendees and materials, which will be presented from the raw form through blocks, to the final design through the applicability of natural stones in furniture and other uses. In content, Vitoria Stone Fair´s program will allow visitors to participate, free of charge, in lectures, exhibitions and demonstrations of products and services.

The president of Sindirochas, Tales Machado, highlights the importance of the international stone exhibition as a support tool for the development of the productive chains of the stone industry. “Vitoria Stone Fair is an established and successful event and its positive impact on the economic and social development of the sector and on the economy of Espirito Santo, with the development of new businesses, is recognized,” he said. “Its [date] in February opens the world trade fair calendar. The fact that it is the first business offer of the year is positive, because the market in general and the buyers are eager for news.”

The fair will once again offer its Buyers’ Club project, which promotes international business opportunities and enables the arrival of foreign buyers from strategic markets for the exhibition. New this year will be the “Business Rounds,” which will be held between producers and international buyers. The meetings, consisting of short sessions to present a portfolio of material, are aimed to widen the approach between stone exhibitors with distributors, builders and architecture offices in the international market.

For 2019, it has been confirmed that the 2nd edition of the Archathon Vitoria Stone Fair will take place. Described as “a marathon of architecture and design,” which, in 2018, brought together 78 architects from all over Brazil during the Vitoria Stone Fair, Archathon is held within an architectural co-working at the fair. 

As for the visiting public, Cecília Milaneze, director of Milanez & Milaneze, said that buyers who visit Vitoria Stone Fair/Marmo+Mac Latin America are decision makers. Attendees are made up of distributors, as well as industry professionals from warehouses, large marble mills, mining companies, equipment rental companies and construction companies. Additionally, there will be a number of architects and designers. “At the last edition of the event, 42% of the visitors were CEOs, directors and managers, and almost 30% were in the area of construction, engineering, architecture and design,” said Milaneze.

As for the volume of ornamental stone exports, the forecast is good for 2019, with positive results already in the first two quarters due to the optimism of the market with the future government and also the return of the fair to the beginning of the year.

For more information about the event, including how to register for it, visit: www.vitoriastonefair.com.br.