Interview with International Supermarket News on Anuga 2009
Peter Grothues, Vice President Food of Koelnmesse GmbH
June 2009
As
the world’s most important food and beverage trade fair, Anuga enjoys
high regard and acceptance from exhibitors and visitors alike. That
means this trade fair is the ideal venue for your impressive
presentation. Only at Anuga can you count on meeting all of the
national and international top-level decision-makers from the trade and
the food service and catering market in one place. Here, Anuga shares
with ISN their relish for the upcoming taste09, and the different ways they are going to enrich the show.
What do you feel has made Anuga so successful in the trade fair business?
Anuga
offers unique access to both the supplier and the demander and shows a
matchless ability to adapt to the constantly changing market
conditions. As a result the food community has build up trust in the
Anuga brand. For nearly 60 years now Anuga has been the
premium platform for the international food and beverage business. Its
success is reflected by numbers: about 6,000 exhibitors coming from 100
countries are claiming the actual state of affairs as well future
trends and issues for the complete food & beverage business. Over
160,000 visitors from the food trade and from the catering sector come
to Anuga to do orders, get comprehensive insight and information and
make vital business contacts. By its clear structure of “10 Food Fairs
under one roof” Anuga offers an effective and very focussed approach
for both exhibitors and buyers. This is what it’s all about and it is
what makes Anuga as successful as it is. Bringing together supply and
demand on an international and high rated level.
What benefits will Anuga be able to enjoy at taste09 later this year?
The taste innovation
competition, which will be held for the fourth time as part of Anuga,
will be the place where the best of the Anuga exhibitors’ products will
be presented to the international trade public and press as part of a
focussed special show. The products selected by the jury will reflect
the main and topical trends in the food business and serve as a guide
for trend scouts. The companies whose products are selected profit from
the international attention Anuga gets from the media and the
professional sector at the same time.
How do you convert the success or failure of specific trends at your annual festivals?into policy or strategy for the future?
Together
with our international network of partners from the food business as
well as trend scouts and researchers, we identify the main trends and
integrate them, for instance, into the supporting programme. We did
this with the organic issue: First we organized a special show at Anuga
in combination with conferences and workshops. The success of this
platform encouraged us to established Anuga Organic – one of the 10
Food Fairs at Anuga. The same is true about the WellFood-sector which
mirrors Health & Functional Food – a winning section within the
food business – which got its own discussion platform at Anuga since
2005. This will also be the case with the Halal topic in the future.
The demand of Halal food is growing. Why do you think this is?
There
are approximately 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, making “halal” food
and beverages one of the food industry’s most dynamically growing
product groups, a trend that also can be served by European suppliers,
of course. Due to the fact that especially Muslim communities are
growing in numbers, a further growth of the demand for Halal Food is
one of the fastest and effective growing food sectors in the world and
will remain so for many years. With the first “Global Halal Conference”
at Anuga featuring the participation of experts from all over the
world, we want to emphasize and highlight this aspect.
Representatives
from the dairy food sector negotiated effectively and fruitfully last
year. Are there any areas/sectors you expect special things from this
year?
Also in 2009 the dairy business will find its
international trading platform at Anuga. With about 330 companies from
40 countries, among them the leading manufacturers, Anuga offers a wide
range of possibilities for new products and for new business. A special
highlight is the social event “Dairy unlimited” which is a get-together
for the sector and its members. Turkey, our partner-country this year,
will definitely create a special momentum within Anuga 2009.
In what innovative ways might beverages be represented this year?
To
track down the most remarkable trends in the beverage sector this year
we will introduce a new information platform — the “Drinks Trend
Forum”. Within the specialised trade fair Anuga Drinks, and in the
exhibition and congress programme, the forum will address and
illustrate the beverage industry’s most important trends. The forum
also offers exhibitors interesting models for participation and
presentations. This will also, once again, be the setting of the “Anuga
Wine Special”, which was a highlight of Anuga Drinks in 2007. For the
congress part we were able to engage one of the leading German research
institutes which will present its new analysis of the sector and its
trends. The congress will of course be translated into English – so
every visitor or exhibitor will be able to profit.
