K 2025: Royal visit reinforces strategic partnership in the Middle East

Royal visit to K 2025: His Royal Highness Prince Saud Turki Al-Faisal Al Saud, Chairman of the Riyadh Exhibitions Company (REC), together with Wolfram N. Diener, Chairman of the Management Board of Messe Düsseldorf, set another milestone in the close cooperation between the two partners. At K 2025, the World's Leading Trade Fair for Plastics & Rubber, both sides confirmed their strategic cooperation with an official handshake.

The handshake marks another milestone in the international expansion of the world's leading trade fairs K, interpack and drupa into Saudi Arabia. There, the dynamic and multifaceted development of the Middle East economy can currently be observed in an impressive manner. The Riyadh Exhibitions Company is organising the Saudi Plastics & Petrochem and Saudi Print & Pack trade fairs there from 12 to 15 April 2026, with over 500 exhibiting companies from the petrochemical, plastics, printing and packaging industries. This rapidly growing quartet of trade fairs, whose number of exhibitors has risen by around 70 per cent since 2018, offers ideal opportunities for Messe Düsseldorf.

The new presence in Riyadh perfectly complements Messe Düsseldorf's existing international portfolio – in the plastics and rubber sector with ‘K Alliance’, in the processing and packaging segment with ‘interpack alliance’ and in the print technologies sector with ‘drupa alliance’. The aim of the partnership is to actively participate in the growing economic momentum in the Middle East. Both partners had already officially documented their strategic cooperation in a memorandum of understanding in spring 2025.

Numerous points of contact for the Düsseldorf trade fair portfolio

Wolfram N. Diener, Chairman of the Board of Management of Messe Düsseldorf, emphasises the significance of this decision: ‘We are in the right place at the right time. With our commitment to the world's fastest-growing trade fair market, we are strengthening our position as one of the most successful international trade fair companies. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are diversifying their economies, which opens up numerous points of contact for our broad trade fair portfolio and new potential for our customers.’ The fact that the economic transformation of the region is attracting increasing international attention was also demonstrated by a high-ranking visitor: His Excellency Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, is currently visiting K 2025. Last year, he already got an impression of the international trade fair scene in Düsseldorf at drupa 2024.

High economic growth in the Middle East

This is reflected in the economic data of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. According to the consulting firm jwc, their annual growth rate of six percent until 2029 exceeds both that of the EU (3%) and the global average (5%).

Building on existing strengths: steps taken in the region to date

The current new business activities are not Messe Düsseldorf's first steps in the region. Since 2007, K has had a successful partnership with ArabPlast in Dubai. Since 2019, Messe Düsseldorf has been driving its business forward with, among other things, the interpack alliance trade fairs pacprocess MEA and Food Africa Cairo in Egypt – the link between the Middle East and Africa. Since 2024, a new subsidiary has also been complementing Messe Düsseldorf's global network – in Turkey, which bridges the gap between Europe and the Middle East. The offensive in Saudi Arabia is now the next logical step.