"The first week in December saw me (Richard Campey) and Simon Gumbrill from Campey Turf Care Systems head to the sunnier climes of Brazil!

We were exhibiting at the Expo Estadio and Sport Infratech exhibition and conference in Sao Paulo, where many new contacts were made. The Brazilians are very interested in how natural grass playing surfaces need to be maintained and how Campey equipment can help them to achieve this. Special interest was shown in the new Universe® rotor for the Koro Field Top Makers, and how it can help to solve most of the problems associated with warm season grass maintenance.

Simon was invited by the organisers to give a presentation, and he chose to base his presentation on the subject of European Field Maintenance at Real Madrid and Manchester United Football Clubs. This attracted much interest with many questions being asked afterwards.


Simon Gumbrill giving his presentation

Across the aisle from where the Campey booth was situated in the exhibition hall, was the “Chinese Pavilion” supported by the Chinese Government. Other countries to receive government support were India and the USA. We couldn’t see any sign of any UK government support for the exhibition!

Interesting enough Simon and I found out on the last day of the show (Thursday) that the UKTI representative and his secretary based in Rio, attended the exhibition on the Tuesday and Wednesday. It is a great pity that they couldn’t be bothered to find and speak to the only British company there who were flying the Union Jack.

Going back to the Chinese Pavilion and the ten companies represented. They all manufactured just one product – “PLASTIC GRASS”. All we looked at for three days was 40 million sq. meters of it; one company had even covered the world with it!

So make no mistake - if the Chinese get their way there soon will be no “NATURAL GRASS” anywhere!”

Richard Campey