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BARCELONA, Spain, May 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Alimentaria Barcelona one of the main food, drink and foodservice trade shows worldwide closed successfully its biggest edition in years to offer the food industry a major platform for internationalization and business and a high level of innovation, making gastronomy its differentiating factor. The event, that took place from 16 to 19 April 2018 at Fira de Barcelona (Spain) attracted more than 200 exhibiting companies from Asian countries.
With a net exhibition space of over 100,000 sq. m, the joint organization of the show with Hostelco, the International Exhibition of Equipment for Restaurants, Hotels and Mass Catering, offers both the retail and HoReCa sectors the most comprehensive offering to date. Some 4,500 exhibiting firms - some 200 coming from Asia, mainly Chinese- and more than 150,000 professional visitors attended the trade show, (30% international).
In this edition, Chinese companies achieved the second position in the list of countries with more occupied exhibiting space by non-Spanish brands, with more than 1,100 sqm.
Performing a strong growth, China is the most dynamic external market for Spanish products, with €1,1 billion in 2016, with an increase of 49% of the purchases, according to the Spanish Federation of Food and Drink Industries (FIAB). Pork meat, wine and live oil are the most exported goods. On the other hand, Thailand -with €72 million spent in Spanish food products- is becoming an attractive market as it experienced a growth of 36% in its purchases from Spain, especially frozen fish, fish flours and olive oil. In Alimentaria 2018, over 200 companies invited to visit the show through the program Hosted Buyers came from Asian key markets, especially from Mainland China+Hong Kong+Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and India. These countries/regions were also on top of the visitor's ranking of Alimentaria 2018.
Gastronomic and innovative Excellence
Close to 20,000 professionals participated in more than 200 activities that took place in Alimentaria 2018, with exceptional protagonists: a selected group of chefs that own close to 45 Michelin stars (Carme Ruscalleda, Paco Pérez or Ángel León among others), while top international wine experts such as Jancis Robinson and Nick Lander participated in the Vinorum Think event. The area The Alimentaria Hub became a knowledge, trends, innovation and business centre, in which some 12,500 meetings between international buyers and exhibiting companies took place.
