Expo Agrofuturo Closes With 11,526 Visitors as German and Brazilian Suppliers Court Colombian Buyers

Visitor Count Trails Last Year as Bancolombia Backs Equipment Credit

The 19th edition of Expo Agrofuturo ran from October 21 to 23, 2026 at Corferias (BVC: CORFERIAS) in Bogotá and drew 11,526 specialized visitors over three days. The agribusiness platform is run jointly by Corferias and Agrilink, and the organizers said Germany and Brazil anchored the edition’s international presence. Delegations from both countries brought technology, machinery and supply-chain solutions to Colombian producers, businesspeople and buyers, opening commercial cooperation between Colombia and two major agro-industrial exporters.

The Medellín edition in September 2025 drew 14,154 visitors and 388 exhibitors, and the 2024 Bogotá edition drew nearly 12,000 visitors and 352 exhibitors. The organizers had projected close to 14,000 specialized visitors and more than 350 exhibiting companies for 2026, in sponsored pre-fair content they placed in Portafolio.

Doris Chingaté, Expo Agrofuturo project head at Corferias, said the German and Brazilian presence, the reworked FIXA format and the emphasis on startups and market squares had left the sector “more connected, more technological and with better tools to compete.”

Financing Moves to the Foreground

AgroMatch, the fair’s business roundtable, paired supplier companies with domestic and international buyers through scheduled one-to-one appointments, unplanned meetings and contacts filtered by segment and deal potential. Running alongside it was a credit roundtable with Bancolombia, the fair’s financial partner and the Colombian banking subsidiary of Grupo Cibest (NYSE: CIB; BVC: CIBEST, PFCIBEST), aimed at financing purchases of machinery, technology and inputs.

Bancolombia projected operations of close to $20 billion COP, about $6.3 million USD at the October 31, 2026 market representative rate of $3,182.99 COP to the dollar certified by the Superintendencia Financiera (Financial Superintendency). “Expo Agrofuturo is an opportunity to strengthen alliances, generate new business opportunities and connect financial solutions with the needs of the agricultural sector,” said Natalia Vázquez, manager of Bancolombia’s CEBAR business unit, who cited the value of relationships with key actors in the region.

FIXA Runs as a Knowledge Ecosystem for the First Time

A protected-crop tunnel exhibit with berry plants at Expo Agrofuturo 2026 at Corferias in Bogotá. (Photo courtesy Corferias)

In its first year operating as what the organizers call a knowledge ecosystem, FIXA assembled more than 100 Colombian and international speakers across more than 70 sessions — conferences, TED Talks, interviews and case studies — in five specialized halls.

Two of those halls dealt with production technique. El futuro del agro y la ganadería (The Future of Agriculture and Livestock) covered drones, sensors, satellite imagery and artificial intelligence applied to production, while Aquí nace la productividad (Productivity Starts Here) took on water management, nutrition, pest control and climate adaptation. A third hall, El agro como negocio (Agriculture as a Business), focused on profitability, investment and company growth. A fourth, La ganadería en evolución (Livestock in Evolution), went into genetics, silvopastoral systems, traceability and precision livestock farming. The fifth, AgStar – Innovar para crecer (AgStar: Innovate to Grow), showcased AgTech, FoodTech and AnimalTech technologies.

Liliana Quevedo, executive director of the Colombian Jersey cattle breeders association Asojersey and a member of the Alianza de Razas Especializadas en Leche (Alliance of Specialized Dairy Breeds), said visitors to its stand arrived with defined objectives for their livestock projects. She said that against previous editions the association saw more visitors at its stand, a more diverse public, a strengthened knowledge ecosystem and more commercial houses showing what they are doing for the sector.

“More than closing deals, for us the big result is the positioning of the Holstein, Ayrshire and Jersey breeds nationally.” — Liliana Quevedo, executive director of Asojersey

A Cold-Chain Startup Takes the Pitch Prize

The AgStar Pitch Competition stage at Expo Agrofuturo 2026, where the Bogotá startup NanoFreeze took first place. (Photo courtesy Corferias)

AgStar, the fair’s AgriFoodTech track, received 80 applications and selected 10 finalists: Fotortec, ConeXalab, ISD+i² – Innovative Inventions, TopEye, NanoFreeze, Tecde, Metcover, IoT Tech, Ucropit and Neonativa. On the closing day the finalists presented to a panel of five investors — Leonardo Cubillos of BBVA, Hernando Rivas of Rivas Capital, Laura Muñoz of Alive, César Gutiérrez of Kroll Investment and Gustavo Palacios of Sharecollab x Connecting the Dots.

NanoFreeze won. The Bogotá company, led by Isabel Pulido, makes a water-based refrigerant built on bio-nanotechnology that the organizers’ closing statement said freezes at temperatures as high as 4 degrees Celsius and holds cold for up to 24 hours without drawing power. It is applied in packaging for the food, flower and pharmaceutical cold chains, and in panels that the company says cut the energy consumption of commercial and industrial refrigerators by between 20% and 44%.

“This recognition rewards all the efforts NanoFreeze has made to contribute to the refrigeration industry, to agricultural producers and to exporters,” said Santiago Sáenz, CRO of NanoFreeze, who said the company’s aim is to reach more users in Colombia and abroad and to cut carbon dioxide emissions and food waste.

Bogotá Puts Its Market Squares on the Program

Buyers review packaged berries at a fresh-produce stand on the Expo Agrofuturo 2026 show floor at Corferias in Bogotá. (Photo courtesy Corferias)

On October 21 and 22, 2026, the Instituto para la Economía Social (Institute for the Social Economy, IPES) held the Primer Encuentro Internacional de Plazas de Mercado (First International Market Squares Meeting) in Corferias’ main auditorium. The sessions drew more than 1,000 attendees, including specialists from Panamá, México, Chile and El Salvador, representatives of 340 market squares in Ciudad de México, Ciudad de Panamá and Chile, and vendors from Bogotá’s district markets. The program was built on six themes — feeding, connecting, celebrating, caring, transforming and governing — covering food security, economic opportunities between traders and producers, culinary heritage, the circular economy, digital transformation and institutional coordination. The meeting’s business roundtable produced 23 commercial connections.

The Bogotá city government reported that the meeting generated sales of $21,597,000 COP, roughly $6,800 USD, and said it carried no direct cost to IPES because partner organizations contributed more than $156 million COP.

Medellín Hosts the 20th Edition

Expo Agrofuturo will hold its 20th edition in Medellín from September 8 to 10, 2027. Medellín has alternated with Bogotá as the host city in recent years. “Reaching 20 years is proof that Latin American agriculture needed a place to meet, learn and do business,” said María Alejandra Madrid, chief executive of Agrilink, who said the international presence in Bogotá and the showing by startups such as NanoFreeze in front of investors confirmed that innovation represents a real opportunity.

Headline photo: A cacao and chocolate exhibitor on the show floor at Expo Agrofuturo 2026 in Bogotá. (Photo courtesy Corferias)