There is an Italy that not only produces objects, but landscapes. That exports biodiversity and cultivates beauty. It is the Italy of horticulture, a supply chain that combines ancient knowledge and new technologies, aesthetics and technique, territory and innovation.
A sector worth 3.2 billion Euros, of which 70% is destined for export – constantly growing – and boasts a global reputation in the high-quality segment.
An Italy “Made in & by green” that, from blue-green infrastructures to urban forestation techniques, from metropolitan parks to vertical gardens, passing through the valorization of historic villas and parks, is creating a new grammar of landscape design to imagine the cities of the future: more resilient, inclusive, adaptive social ecosystems.
This is the Italy protagonist of the first edition of Greenitaly, the new international exhibition conceived by Fiere di Parma and dedicated to Made in Italy green, scheduled at Fiere di Parma from October 15 to 17, 2025. The exhibition will be held concurrently with Mercanteinfiera, a strategic choice that enhances the synergy between events and the flow of national and international visitors. The new exhibition format of Fiere di Parma was presented today in Rome during the press conference hosted at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, where Antonio Cellie, CEO of Fiere di Parma, Matteo Zoppas, President of ICE, and Mauro Uniformi, President of CONAF (National Council of the Order of Agronomists and Foresters), spoke.
“With Greenitaly,” states Antonio Cellie, CEO of Fiere di Parma, “we put green at the center as a social and productive ecosystem, not as a contemplative element. Green is now a strategic infrastructure: it must connect communities and businesses, sustainability and innovation, ecology and social transformation. The exhibition must stimulate new awareness but also indicate how the supply chain can concretely design, implement, and maintain the landscapes in which we would like to live and work.”
Matteo Zoppas, President of ITA – Italian Trade Agency, added: “With 1.2 billion euros exported in 2024 – and the first three months of 2025 having exceeded 480 million – horticulture confirms itself as an advanced expression of Made in Italy where agricultural tradition, landscape culture, and sustainability intertwine in a virtuous balance that is recognized globally. It is no coincidence that we are among the top three exporting countries in the world, with growth potential that can contribute to achieving the challenging goal set by Masaf of 100 billion in agro-food exports. In this context, ITA – Italian Trade Agency renews its commitment alongside Italian companies by supporting Greenitaly, helping it to position itself as a European platform for innovation in nursery farming. This commitment translates into an incoming program for 150 foreign buyers with targeted communication actions to enhance Italian excellence in strategic markets and supporting a development model that integrates innovation, quality, and internationalization. This is accompanied by the promotion of the sector abroad with business missions such as the one to Serbia in 2024 and with strategic tools such as Phytoweb, a bilingual portal – developed with ANVE – to facilitate international regulatory compliance, and the Nomisma Opportunity Index, also born from an agreement with ANVE, which provides a punctual and data-driven analysis of high-potential markets, allowing a targeted approach to commercial expansion, particularly towards Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean basin.”
“The city of the XXI century requires extreme competence in designing urban green spaces: careful varietal selection is no longer enough, but it is necessary to consider the placement in the urban fabric, pay attention to maintenance costs, enhance the ability to reduce heat bubbles, to deal with prolonged droughts, to dispose of excess water,” concluded Mauro Uniformi, President of CONAF. “For agronomists and foresters, it is a stimulating opportunity because, through their profession and the holistic approach that characterizes it, it allows them to be an actor of change and face current challenges from climate change to the inclusivity of vulnerable publics. An opportunity that many new members have already understood and seized.”
Greenitaly was created to offer the sector a unified platform capable of enhancing production excellences and territorial districts, intercepting new markets, fostering dialogue between public and private, designers and nurserymen, industry and landscape. In a season marked by complex challenges – climate change, urbanization, ecological transition – green space thus becomes a strategic infrastructure for the future of cities and our societies themselves. And Greenitaly explores all its facets: environmental, productive, cultural, social, and regulatory.
The themes and talks of Greenitaly
Opening the discussion on the inaugural day of the exhibition on October 15 will be the master lecture by landscape architect João Ferreira Nunes, an international reference figure in landscape design. Following this, a high-profile panel dedicated to the green design of corporate spaces will feature Davide Bollati, President of the Davines group, and Giampiero Maioli, President of Crédit Agricole, moderated by architect Dario Costi.
At the heart of the event, a clear idea: green is no longer just decoration but a necessity. Resilient cities begin with nurseries, public health is built with trees, beauty is designed with plants.
These are the themes that run through the entire exhibition, inspiring content, set-ups, and opportunities for discussion: from urban forestation to sustainable water resource management, from ornamental pruning techniques to the valorization of historical green spaces, up to urban planning tools. These themes will also be explored in a design key by the international conference “Urban Landscape of Tomorrow” promoted by AIAPP (October 15), with the participation of major European landscape protagonists who will bring experiences and visions on the future of green in urban, tourist, residential, and productive contexts.
The exhibition will offer insights and reflections on good practices, innovative projects, and green enhancement pathways, with an eye also on the opportunities opened by public instruments such as the PNRR for rethinking urban spaces, including historic villas and gardens, increasingly recognized as cultural and environmental infrastructures to be valued.
These themes will be further explored on the morning of Friday, October 17, with the conference “Agroecology and Urban Greenery,” organized by Greenitaly in collaboration with Davines and the European Agroecology Association, and followed in the afternoon by the conference “Biodiversity and Urban Greenery,” promoted together with the University of Parma and the Emilia-Romagna Region. These two complementary events will foster dialogue between science, institutions, and design to define integrated models of urban ecological planning, drawing an integrated vision of green as a key element for urban resilience.
Also on October 17, the conference “Gardening glourishes through fairs: european experiences compared” will take place, comparing four excellent exhibition events: Royal Horticultural Society (United Kingdom), Jardins Jardin of Paris, Euroflora, and Orticolario (Italy). The objective is to analyze how these events contribute to spreading the culture of landscape and promoting a new environmental sensibility, transforming gardening into a lifestyle and training new generations of experts and enthusiasts.
On October 17, there will also be space for agroecology, biodiversity, and techniques for sponge city design through a series of thematic interventions.
The design, management, and maintenance of urban green spaces today require figures capable of combining botanical knowledge, landscape sensibility, and technical mastery. Among the emerging competencies, those related to ornamental pruning are increasingly central, understood not only as an agronomic practice but as a design tool capable of influencing the aesthetics, functionality, and value of plants in an urban context. This is accompanied by the need for updated training courses, capable of preparing professionals able to face the challenges posed by the climate crisis, from species adaptation to the design of resilient landscapes.
A key moment on this front will be the seminar on October 16 – organized by Lineaverde GreenItaly – dedicated to the training of technicians and designers, with the involvement of agricultural institutes, universities, and representatives of the professions. The meeting will give voice to training and operational experiences capable of responding to the growing demand for specialized and innovative profiles.
This initiative is perfectly consistent with “Green for Job,” Greenitaly’s program dedicated to matching labor supply and demand in the green sector, with a particular focus on the new skills required by the market. The initiative will involve the most important Italian and international schools.
The conference organized by ANVE, also on October 16, will focus on the new frontiers of nursery farming: from production to commercialization, up to phytosanitary defense and the management of emerging pathogens. From large historical districts like Pistoia, Canneto sull’Oglio, Saonara, and Lake Maggiore, to the new productive vocations of Southern Italy, Greenitaly will bring to Parma all the richness of a sector that has never stopped evolving, experimenting, and adapting. An exhibition that looks not only at products, but at territories and skills. That does not limit itself to exhibiting, but invites to imagine a future in which Italian horticulture can play a leading role also on international markets, bringing to the world not only plants, but an idea of Italian landscape, culture, and know-how.
For the complete and updated program of events: https://greenitaly.net/en/home-2/
