GreenTech Amsterdam 2026, an AIPH-approved International Horticultural Trade Exhibition and AIPH Affiliate Member, brought the global horticultural technology sector together at RAI Amsterdam from 9–11 June.
Held under the theme PURE, this year’s event focused on transparency, responsibility and sustainable cultivation, reflecting the need for horticulture to combine innovation with trust, resource efficiency and practical impact.
For AIPH, GreenTech’s value lay not only in the technologies on display but also in its role as an international meeting point for the sector. Approved trade exhibitions create platforms where growers, suppliers, researchers, associations, policymakers, investors, and technology providers can connect to address shared challenges and explore future opportunities.
Tim Briercliffe, Secretary General of AIPH, said: “GreenTech Amsterdam continues to demonstrate why international trade exhibitions are so important for horticulture. They bring people together around the practical questions facing producers today, from labour and resource use to technology adoption and sustainability, while creating the connections needed to turn innovation into progress. GreenTech plays a valuable role in supporting knowledge exchange and collaboration across the global horticultural industry.”
Following the event, GreenTech Director Mariska Dreschler reflected on three days of international exchange, with 530 exhibitors and visitors from around the world. Her post-show message captured the atmosphere in Amsterdam: GreenTech was not simply a showcase for horticultural technology, but a place where innovations and global challenges were shared in the search for new solutions for food and flower production.
An international platform for shared challenges
GreenTech 2026 showed how quickly horticultural technology is moving from concept to practical adoption. Robotics, artificial intelligence, plant sensing, biological crop protection, water reuse, CO₂ supply, waste heat and professional skills development all featured across the show floor and knowledge programme.
The event’s PURE theme was reflected in the way GreenTech brought different parts of the industry together. Technology companies were not only presenting products; they were discussing how those products fit into real production systems. Researchers and knowledge institutes were sharing evidence and regional insight. Growers and producers were looking for solutions that could be applied in practice, not just future concepts.
Innovation moving closer to growers
The Robot Challenge offered one clear example of innovation moving closer to daily greenhouse operations, with 4XRobots winning for its 4X Delta Cobot for high-speed plant transplanting.
The GreenTech Innovation Awards also highlighted technologies aimed at practical grower decision-making. Sensie won the Innovation Award for Sensie Omni, a plant-wearable that helps growers understand crop responses. MANNA CEA from the Republic of Korea won the Concept Award for MESH, a modular AI greenhouse automation and management system. PATS won the newly launched Impact Award for PATS-C, an automated moth-pest monitoring system that enables earlier crop protection decisions.
Together, these winners reflected the direction of travel across the event: plant-led data, accessible automation, predictive crop protection and robotics that can support more efficient production. For AIPH members, the significance lies not in individual products alone but in how these developments respond to shared pressures facing growers internationally.
A platform for the wider industry
GreenTech’s strength lies in how it brings together different parts of the horticultural technology sector. Across the exhibition floor and knowledge programme, growers, suppliers, researchers, technology providers and industry partners were able to compare approaches, discuss practical challenges and explore how innovation can move closer to implementation.
That platform role matters at a time when producers are facing shared pressures around labour, energy, water, crop protection, sustainability and skills. The value of an international trade exhibition lies not only in showcasing what is new, but also in helping the sector understand what is useful, what is scalable, and what can support growers in real production systems.
Knowledge exchange for a changing sector
Beyond individual innovations, GreenTech 2026 underlined the importance of knowledge exchange across the whole horticultural technology sector. The programme addressed shared industry challenges including water reuse, lifecycle assessment, future-proof CO₂ supply, waste heat, automation, crop protection, skills development and sustainable production.
For AIPH, international trade exhibitions have particular value. They allow growers, producer organisations, suppliers, researchers and industry partners to compare approaches, understand emerging trends and discuss practical responses to challenges that are global in nature but local in application. The industry needs spaces where international expertise can be shared, questioned and translated into action for producers.
Supporting producers through connection
GreenTech 2026 showed that the future of horticulture will depend on more than individual products or technologies. It will depend on connection: between growers and innovators, research and commercial practice, technology and biology, global knowledge and local growing conditions.
A fuller trade review on FloraCulture International, AIPH’s international magazine for the horticultural industry, explores the technologies and grower-focused conversations that shaped GreenTech 2026, from robotics and plant sensing to water reuse, CO₂ supply, biological control and resource-secure greenhouse production.
