Agribition attendance drops, but trade show still turns healthy profit

Canadian Western Agribition announced it made $745,852 in profitduring the 2016 year at its AGM on Thursday.

During the meeting, Chris Lane, Agribition CEO, described the past year as a successful one across the board, althoughoverall attendance was down slightly from last year.

124,000 people came through the gates in Regina last November slightly lower than the organization's target and down from the record130,200 visitors seen over the six-day event in 2015.

Attendance for ticketed events, on the other hand, hit an all-time high with 25,000 attendees.

"All that money, just about all of it, is earmarked to reinvestment," Lane said.

Overall, Agribition recorded $2.9 million in livestock sales while international sales in 2016 were more than the past four years combined.

"Everybody workedrealhard just to make sure the show was a success. There's a huge passion in this organization," said Stewart Stone, president of Agribition.

Stone is in his final year as president and saidhe's proud of where the organization is, two years after he came to the position.

The CWA will move into the new International Trade Centre this year which is expected to be completed by the fall.

Lane said events such as jousting and running with the bulls were great successes for CWA and that this year they will look at having a "high-adrenaline schedule" on the Saturday of Agribition.