Canada's Farm Progress Show wound up another successful year Friday.

Rob O’Connor, show manager, said the show may be over but now the hard part begins, breaking down and shipping out all of the exhibits and equipment.

O'Connor said this year has been especially great. He said they had international buyers from 58 different nations this year.

“They came from the middle east, and eastern Europe, western Europe, Australia, North America. So every continent was represented here this year.”

They also had buyers come from places that had never attended before including Ghana and the Czech Republic.

“There seems to be more and more markets opening for Canadian agriculture equipment,” said O’Connor.
There were also a record breaking number of exhibitors this year, over 800.

But O'Connor said one of the most exciting things for him this year was the 24 new products launched. Caterpillar introduced their new CT660 truck, Versatile launched their new combine, and Seedmaster launched their new onboard tanks among several others.

“There’s some great products here that were coming to the world market for the very first time right here in Regina,” said O’Connor.

He said he’s gotten great feedback from attendees and everyone at the show has been upbeat all week. O’Connor said he thinks it’s because agriculture is doing well.

“You know, when the whole global credit crisis happened agriculture markets didn’t crash, agriculture markets continued to grow, in some areas upwards to seven per cent. And that was unheard of during that time period.”

Though this year’s show just ended they already have 27 exhibits on the waiting list for next year.