Alimentaria FoodTech will represent the entire food and beverage production chain

Processing, ingredients, packaging, industry 4.0 and food safety. These five strategic ingredients form the basis of the next Alimentaria FoodTech fair, which, from 6 to 9 October 2020 at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Vía venue, will mark the beginning of a new phase, providing a service to all the productive sectors that comprise the value chain of the food and beverage industry. 
Alimentaria FoodTech 2020 will thus reinforce the variety of the sectors on display and, together with its well-established range of ingredients, equipment and machinery for the meat sector and the food industry in general, will host emerging supply profiles (such as industry 4.0) which are strategic for the competitiveness of the food industry.
Thus, in parallel with the productive needs of the cornerstones of the food industry (meat, drinks, preserves, dairy products, baked goods, sea products, fruit, vegetables, snacks and confectionery), the fair will showcase a comprehensive range of equipment, machinery and technology related to processing, refrigeration, packaging, food safety, ingredients, intermediate food products, industrial services, consultancy and industrial engineering solutions, logistics and equipment for shopping centres and the HORECA channel.
Llucià Casellas, President of Alimentaria FoodTech, says, “We have great expectations for next year’s fair, which will bring together the largest and most diverse offer on the market. We’re launching a new cycle for an exhibition which, throughout years of history, has established itself as the most important platform for innovation within the sector”.
According to Ricardo Márquez, the fair’s director, the new profile of the Alimentaria FoodTech Fair will meet the need to “find a new place on the international trade calendar of the techno-food industry, in addition to promoting productive sectors that provide a service for the entire value chain of the food industry”.
Organic growth
The sector’s leading firms and corporations will attend Alimentaria FoodTech 2020, which has achieved a high loyalty rate (more than 70%) among its exhibiting companies.
In total, the fair expects to occupy over 18,000 net m2 of exhibition area, 15% more than at the last event, in Hall 2 of Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Vía venue, with more than 350 participating companies.
Capitalising on the synergies with other fairs organised by Alimentaria Exhibitions, the Fira de Barcelona company which runs the event, Alimentaria FoodTech 2020 will reinforce its international positioning and bring together professionals and companies from the American continent, the European Union and Asia. The fair plans to increase the surface area set aside for international products, chiefly from Europe. More than 50 international exhibitors from 13 countries attended the last fair, occupying more than 2,082 m2 of the surface area.
The business meetings attended by exhibitors and domestic and international buyers invited by the organisers will further enhance the entrepreneurial nature of the event and serve to identify opportunities for exports and penetration into new markets for the companies taking part in the fair. Coordinated by AMEC (the Association of Internationalized Industrial Companies), these encounters will assist in boosting exports of Spanish food and packaging technology and production solutions for the industry.
Awards, congresses and conferences
Innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, food safety and companies’ digital transformation will once again constitute the main threads of the fair’s schedule of activities.
Firmly established as prestigious benchmarks in the sector, the Innova FoodTech and Emprende FoodTech Awards will once again respectively acknowledge the most innovative projects and the most dynamic and entrepreneurial business initiatives in the sector. The Ingrenova area will exhibit the most disruptive products on the market and the Innovation Meeting Point will promote the transfer of knowledge and innovation within the sector by means of several professional meetings.
A highly representative committee
One of the great strengths of Alimentaria FoodTech is the organising committee, which determines the fair’s main features, maintaining it in constant contact with developments in the sector and anticipating future trends and opportunities.
Chaired by Llucià Casellas, managing director of Roser Construcciones Metálicas, SA, it is made up of executives from the leading food technology firms and representatives of the most important associations and institutions in the sector, including Brenntag Química, Intecal, Inovac, Dordal, Hiperbaric, Gea Iberia, Multivac, Mila Masanas, Innova Food, Equipamientos Cárnicos, Mainca, Amec, Aecoc and Irta.
At the service of the food industry
Total turnover from the manufacture of machinery, technology, ingredients and services for the food industry in Spain was 769 million Euros in 2017, of which 425 million Euros was accounted for by exports (a figure about 3% higher than in 2016). Spain is one of the top ten exporting powers in this industry, according to data provided by amec.
February 2019