ALIMENTARIA 2018

100,000 m² of Barcelona’s Gran Vía de Fira, more than 4,500 exhibitors from 70 countries, 30% of them being international. Approximately 150,000 visitors, both national and international, 1,400 buyers and 300 innovations. This is the scenario of the 22^nd edition of Alimentaria 2018, in which the highlight topic is internationalization, one of the biggest challenges of the food sector.

In an optimistic atmosphere and while the industry innovations are being promoted, the priority is to encourage relationships between international buyers and exhibiting companies from countries such as Germany, Argentina, Ecuador, Belgium, Holland, China, Hong-Kong, France, Romania, Russia, Thailand and Turkey.

Within the whole Alimentaria’s exhibition offer we could find Intercarn, a meat products exhibitor which occupied a hall up to 15,000 m2 (11% more than in the previous edition). During the past 10 years, the Spanish meat industry has experienced significant growth, driven by the increase in the number of exports (currently exporting 40% of its production), and has doubled its sales abroad. Thanks to this growth, meat sector is now the fourth most important industrial sector in Spain, with more than 22,000 million euros of turnover (exceeding the 21% of the whole food sector). Together with Germany, we are the third world producer in the sector.

Besides internationalization, another important aspect to highlight is the prioritization of the healthiest products as a trend for 2019. In this aspect, the reduction of fat, salt and sugars as well as the vegan or ecological trend and the elimination of allergens such as gluten or lactose are taken into account. We expect to carry out an in-depth analysis of trends early next year, but we anticipate that consumers are very open to trying new and surprising things, daring to combine flavours and innovating in both products and types of packaging. Alimentaria dedicated an innovation space to several product launches that will not go unnoticed: