Comagarden is the group of Italian manufacturers of gardening machinery belonging to UNACOMA, the association of Agricultural and Garden Machinery Manufacturers that is part of the Confindustria organisation.

Comagarden was created from the fusion between the group of gardening sector companies in UNACOMA and the companies belonging to the Morgan monitoring group (Monitoraggio Ricerche Garden Nazionale – National Garden Monitoring Research), set up in 1992 for primarily statistical purposes thanks to the initiative of some of the major companies in this field, and then taken under the wing of REI (Reggio Emilia Innovation) until April 2006.

Comagarden’s main scope – apart from continuing and broadening its statistical monitoring activities – is to supply all member companies with support services in marketing, technical and bureaucratic aspects, internationalisation, and organisation of focalising events.

Comagarden maintains institutional relationships with ministries, and other Italian public administration bodies, and through the EGMF (European Gardening Machinery Federation) – which it joined at the end of 2006 – with the various relevant European and international bodies, notably with the equivalent US manufacturers association, the OPEI (Outdoor Power Equipment Institute).

Comagarden carries out wide-ranging data collecting activities related to the internal market and to sector import-export tendencies, while also participating in the EGMF’s programme of international data gathering.

As in other manufacturing fields, Comagarden’s activities on the technical-bureaucratic side are mainly related to the unification of European and international regulations, safety criteria and related testing procedures (for which it has stipulated a convention with REI, obtaining reduced prices for member companies), and the implementing of EU directives.

On a promotional level, Comagarden collaborates with the Italian Foreign Trade Institute on the drawing up of the annual National Programme of promotional activities, within the framework of the Ministry for European Policies and International Trade. Among the Association’s principal activities are also the organisation of collective participations at international trade fairs, Italian trade missions abroad and foreign trade missions in Italy, market research in countries of special strategic interest, studies on tendencies in major markets and medium-term forecasts, as well as numerous activities promoting Italian exports.

Every two years in Bologna, in September of odd-numbered years, in collaboration with Unacoma Service, Comagarden organises “ExpoGreen”, the international Trade Fair for Gardening and Sporting Machinery and Equipment. This is aimed at both professional sector operators and the vast range of gardening and open air enthusiasts, and one of its aims is to establish collaborative relationships with the world of research and to promote general awareness and specific vocational training.

From an organisational viewpoint, as well as the central branch in Rome and another in Bologna, the association’s member companies can also take advantage of the office in Brussels, in close contact with the European Commission.