Newses & Articles
IFFA 2016 opens with a new exhibitor record: Meet the Best!
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Industry and butchers’ trade anticipate significant growth impulses for the entire meat sector
The whole sector meets in Frankfurt am Main for IFFA, the No. 1 for the meat industry, from 7 to 12 May 2016. The world’s leading trade fair for the meat industry is set to open its doors on a record number of 1,027 exhibitors – six percent more than at the last edition (2013: 966*). The companies, which include all market leaders, come from around 50 countries and will present innovations for the entire process chain: from slaughtering and processing, via packaging, to sales. On around 110,000 square metres of exhibition space (gross) in seven exhibition halls, they will show innovative and creative solutions for the most demanding of all foodstuffs – meat.
Wolfgang Marzin, Chairman of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt, says, “IFFA continues to grow and we are delighted to welcome more exhibitors than ever before. Under the motto ‘Meet the Best’, Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre will be the focal point of the global meat industry for the coming six days. I am looking forward to an IFFA that provides impressive confirmation of its position as the leading international trade fair for the sector.”
The good economic climate in the industry and butchers’ trade represents an excellent starting point for a successful IFFA 2016. The outlook for suppliers to the meat industry is good. Meat consumption has risen worldwide at a rate of around three percent a year for the last five years. Consumption and production will continue to rise and there is a backlog of demand in the up-and-coming countries of Asia, Latin America and East Europe. Richard Clemens, Managing Director of the Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Association of the VDMA, says, “IFFA is the driving force for the national and international meat industry. The propensity to invest in the sector is high and our expectations of IFFA 2016 are correspondingly optimistic.” IFFA is also a must for the butchers’ trade and butchers comprise of the biggest groups of visitors. According to provisional estimates by the German Butchers’ Association (Deutscher Fleischer-Verband – DFV), revenues in the butchers’ trade stabilised at a high level in 2015 with total sales estimated to have reached approx. € 16.3 billion. DFV President Heinz-Werner Suess, says, “Like my colleagues, I am looking forward to IFFA 2016 and not just to the discussions with like-minded participants at our market place in Hall 4.1. Nowhere else are visitors really served all innovations from all parts of the meat industry in such a complete yet compact way as at IFFA. Now is the best time to obtain all the information required to make precisely targeted, future-oriented investments.”
The top themes of the meat industry
What sets the world’s leading trade fair for the meat industry apart is its unequivocal focus: everything revolves around meat. At IFFA, the spotlight is on innovations and trends that cater for the needs of the market and generate decisive, future-oriented impulses. The current trends are reflected by the extensive range of products and services to be seen at the fair, and mirrored by the complementary programme of events.
In the case of machines and devices for processing and packaging meat and meat products, the key subjects include quality and the increasing demand on product safety and traceability. Additionally, considerable attention is being paid to product optimisation through energy efficiency, increased output, simple cleaning processing, more automation and environmentally-friendly solutions.
In the butchers’ trade, the emphasis is on taking account of new developments in consumer eating behaviour, e.g., convenience foods, take-away snacks and meat-substitute products. Investments in energy efficiency and the simplification of working processes are other top themes in the butchers’ trade. In the case of companies from the ingredients and additives segment, the focus is on food trends and nutritional trends. ‘Clean Labelling’ has been an important trend in the meat industry for many years and gives expression to the demands of consumers and the trade for products with as few additives as possible. Another top theme is salt reduction and, at this year’s IFFA, many exhibitors will be presenting concepts with which the salt content of meat products can be reduced significantly without any loss of taste.
The world at IFFA
IFFA is characterised by high levels of internationality on both the exhibitor and visitor sides. 62 percent of the companies taking part this year are based outside Germany, five percent more than in 2013. After Germany, the biggest exhibitor nation represented by 391 companies, the top ten exhibitor nations are Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, China, the USA, France, Poland, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Growth on the exhibitor side at IFFA 2016 comes primarily from European countries, especially Spain, Denmark, Poland, France and Belgium. There are also more exhibitors from Australia / New Zealand, Turkey, China and Brazil. The proportion of foreign visitors at IFFA is around 60 percent, around two thirds of them from Europe. Altogether, Messe Frankfurt expects to welcome around 60,000 trade visitors from all over the word.
