On Monday, April 4, 2022, His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain officially opened the 23rd Edition of the Alimentaria Fair and Hostelco held at the Gran Vía de Fira in Barcelona, Spain.

According to a press release the Alimentaria Fair and Hostelco is an international event for all professionals in the food, drinks and food service industry and:

“…represents an unmissable date with innovation, the latest trends and the internationalisation of the sector. Alimentaria is strengthening the unique values that set it apart: internationalisation, innovation, gastronomy, and sector specialisation. The show is also feature a highly attractive offering based on key markets for the food industry and their consumer trends.

Meat, dairy, foodservice products, snacks and sweets, preserves, organic and functional foods, and products from the Mediterranean diet at Alimentaria; and equipment, machinery and accessories for the hospitality, coffee, confectionery, baking, pizza and ice cream industries; household goods; and interior design and decoration items, at Hostelco (the International Restaurant, Hotel and Catering Equipment and Machinery trade show), are the productive sectors that make up the offer of both trade shows.

The fact that Alimentaria is being held at the same time as Hostelco will show both distributors and the Horeca channel the most complete and cross-cutting proposal from the catering and cuisine industry’s entire value chain, with great synergies in supply and demand. 85,000 m2, almost the entire Gran Vía venue, and nearly 3,000 exhibiting companies will show that the food and hospitality industry is a key pillar for internationalisation and economic recovery.

For all these reasons, Alimentaria & Hostelco are once again cementing their position as the key global event for the food, beverage and hospitality industry, which sees the double event as a springboard for its commercial strategy abroad. Thus, 400 international companies from 52 countries have confirmed their presence and will occupy some 15,000 m² of exhibition space, 18% of the total event space. And all despite the constraints on international mobility that are still in place.

‘We are very satisfied with the trust that many companies from other countries have once again placed in us,” says José Luis Bonet, President of Alimentaria and of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce. “We are proud that, in a context such as the current one, almost a fifth of the trade show’s total offer is from international firms, a fact which strengthens the role of Alimentaria and Hostelco as a global reference point.’

New participants
International Pavilions, the area bringing together the majority of Alimentaria’s international stands, will have six new participants that are attending the trade show for the first time. They are Brazil, Slovakia, Australia, Canada, United Arab Emirates and Puerto Rico.

The official stands that have already confirmed they will be returning to the trade show include Algeria, Portugal, Morocco, Indonesia, Poland, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and Argentina, among others. We should highlight the cases of Greece and Turkey, which have hired twice as much space as last time, especially Turkey, which will occupy a surface area of almost 1,000 m².

Business meetings
With the aim of further driving the internationalisation of Spanish companies and opening up new business opportunities abroad, Alimentaria & Hostelco have invited 1,400 buyers from 68 countries. The Hosted Buyers programme, organised together with ICEX, facilitates business contacts between exhibitors and this select group of buyers. It is expected that more than 12,500 business meetings will be scheduled over the four trade show days.

As a result of the pandemic, this year priority has been given to the European, North American and Latin American markets to attract buyers. Thus, the countries with the most guests will be the United States, India, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Chile, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

Innovation and cuisine

Innovation, cuisine and management linked to sustainability and social responsibility will define both trade shows’ programme of activities, which will combine their classic content with experiences and knowledge that have emerged in the post-pandemic business environment.

At Alimentaria, the Alimentaria Hub will be the focal point for trends and the future of food, a place where over 200 experts will take part in conferences, talks and fast talks that will focus on innovation, sustainability, digitalisation, new retail habits, nutrition, health and growing markets such as alternative proteins and halal products.

Among the new features of the Alimentaria Hub is the Digital Food Arena, which will bring together eight start-ups set to revolutionise the food sector, chosen in a programme (Food Hospitality Startup Revolution) for emerging companies from the foodtech sector organised by Alimentaria & Hostelco. Eight more startups, also selected by a multidisciplinary panel of judges, will be exhibited in the Hostelco Startups Area. The participants will compete for the Food & Hospitality Startup Revolution Awards, which will reward the most innovative startup and the one with the greatest prospects.

Meanwhile, cuisine will reaffirm its status as a strategic and differential cornerstone of Alimentaria & Hostelco at the Experience Live Gastronomy conferences, with a programme of live cooking, workshops, tastings and presentations of culinary techniques in sustainable cooking, regions, the recovery of traditions and research into the food of the future, among other trends. More than 30 top chefs with more than 36 Michelin stars between them will take part on the six stages of this great gastronomic space.

Hostelco Live Hotel will also be present, recreating the various rooms of a hotel and holding the Hostelco Live Area, a space for debates, talks, and presentations by more than 80 experts in catering and hospitality to address issues related to design, interiors, sustainability, new business concepts, hyper-personalisation to generate unique experiences, and the use of disruptive technologies.“