The Salon International de l'Agriculture is one of the world's largest and most important agricultural shows, occupying the seven pavilions of the Parc d'Expositions Porte de Versailles. The 2020 event had to be held from Saturday, February 22nd to Sunday, March 1st with the fair closing one day earlier. On February 29th, the French Government banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people due to the coronavirus outbreak; a very wise decision, given the scale of the event that each year attracts more than 600,000 visitors, with many crowded areas, free tastings at many stands, etc.

The theme chosen for the 57th Salon was 'Agriculture welcomes you with open arms'. In addition, each year an animal is chosen, as the mascot or public image of the fair. The 2020 show mascot was 'Idéale', a 6-year-old 'Charolaise' cow one of the main breeds in France.

As in previous years, Phil@poste had the latest philatelic issues on sale together with several products specially released for the Salon which complemented the theme of the fair. These included two reprints of stamps depicting farm animals, a new annual collector's folder or 'MonSouvenir' with personalized stamps dedicated to the 'Idéale' cow (images below) and, for the second year running, a commemorative LISA vignette. The special daily postmark depicted the logo and theme of the show, 'L'agriculture vous tend les bras !'.

Like the 2019 issue (see article, published in VARIABLE 52), the LISA design for the 57th Salon de l'Agriculture is by Geneviève Marot. The composition again depicts several farm animals against an agricultural background.

Maximum cards. Below, with the Salon's LISA. Right, with the 'Idéale' personalized stamp.

And as in 2019, Phil@poste did not install a kiosk on its stand for the printing of the LISA stamps. Instead packs of four stamps were sold with the basic values ​​and face value indicators for domestic and international mail (CC - Ecopli, DD - Lettre Verte, AA - Lettre Prioritaire and IP - Lettre Prioritaire Internationale), with the new postage rates in force a few days later, from March 1st 2020. These stamps had been printed before the show using the back-office computer system and Brother printer. Because of the great success of the 2019 issue, Phil@poste put on sale double the number of packs for the 2020 issue; 6,000 in total.

Inland economic mail - CC    ECOPLI	Inland priority mail (D+2) - DD    LETTRE VERTE
Inland priority mail (D+1) AA    LETTRE PRIORITAIRE	International priority mail IP    LETTRE PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONALE

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