SALIMA TECHNOLOGY
7.-9.2. 2023
Fair for food industry and gastronomy
SALIMA in 2014 attracted professionals and the general public
The Brno Exhibition Centre welcomed six specialized fairs in a single date, dedicated to the food, packaging and printing industries. International fairs SALIMA, MBK, INTECO, VINEX, EMBAX and PRINTexpo were attended by 786 exhibiting companies from 35 countries, which is 15 percent more than two years ago. Visitors’ interest also surpassed the reality of 2012 - according to the preliminary results, the trade fairs were attended by 28 000 visitors this year.
A significant majority of exhibitors consisted of small and medium-sized firms, which came to the fair mainly with the aim of reinforcing the existing and establishing new business contacts. Almost 48 percent of companies came from abroad, mostly from this year’s trade fair partner country of Poland, Slovakia, Italy and Germany. For the first time, there were exhibitors from Kazakhstan, Morocco and Vietnam. Stands in Halls A1, A2, B and V occupied an area of 27,000 square meters and with a total of 440 brands (10% more than in 2012) were presented there.
After twenty years, the food fairs again opened to the general public, which could thus get to know novelties bound for retail and development trends of modern food and cuisine. Exhibitors of food and beverages appreciated the opportunity to present their quality products to end consumers and get their feedback. The larger part of the visitors still consisted of experts – i.e. representatives of retail and wholesale, catering establishments and production facilities. Thanks to the date connection of trade fairs of related disciplines, they were able to get an overview of the latest news and trends in processing, distribution and sale, all in one place. During the first three days, 712 foreign visitors from 26 countries registered at the ticket desks. Most of them came from Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Austria, individual visitors also arrived from distant countries such as China, South Korea, Mauritius and the USA. The Press Centre accredited 170 journalists from three countries.
The trade fairs were also visited by VIP guests and several important international meetings were held. For the fifth time, Food Forum conference was held during the Salima fair with the theme of Quality and Safe Food Products on the European Market. In addition to representatives of the organizing Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic and the Food Chamber of the Czech Republic, meetings were attended by the ministerial partners from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the European Food Safety Authority and the European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Consumers. The official visitors to the fair also included foreign business delegations from Slovakia, Germany, Belarus, Hungary and Austria.
New business opportunities were brought by the PRINTexpo fair that teamed up again with the EMBAX fair after several years of hiatus and addressed customers not only from the food sector to which the packaging and printing industry are directly linked. This year's Packaging and Packaging Technology Fairs EMBAX and PRINTexpo brought samples of high technology and new developments of this sector. An important part of the fair consisted of the Packaging Live project, with a model packaging line equipped with the latest technologies was presented in live operation.
The competitions for the best exhibits exhibitors had a record of 55 products that were signed up. Their quality was assessed by two evaluation committees, one for food and drinks and the other for engineering and technology. A total of ten Golden Salima 2014 awards were granted. In the food section they were presented to the following companies: Ing. Peter Kudláč - Apimed, Včelpo, Janíček & Čupa, GTQ, Váhala, František Bačík – Čokoládovna Troubelice and Bohemilk. The engineering section gave the prize to Nerez Blučina and Embax awarded an exhibit presented by Ondrášek, the INK-JET System. At the same time the Exhibition Centre was a venue of official presentation of new certificates of quality marks, KLASA and Czech Product - guaranteed by the Food Chamber of the Czech Republic to thirteen manufacturers.
On the occasion of the food fairs, the winners of the traditional competitions Pivex Gold Cup Beer of 2014 and Golden Keg of PIVEX 2014 were announced. The Milling Industry, Bakery and Confectionery fair MBK held two-day finals on the 19th year of the skill competition "Baker of the year 2014 - Junior Category". The accompanying exhibition of Embax trade fair presented for the first time the winning exhibits of Packaging Design 2013 and Touch 2013 competitions announced by the SYBA Packaging Institute.
The supporting programme focused on specialized topics such as supervision over the food quality and safety, safe processing of foods of animal origin, UV printing on packaging and printed items or digital 3D technology in the development and manufacturing process. The culinary exhibition of the Association of hotels and restaurants supporting the Czech Specials project met with great success. A project of cooking classes for children “Playful Cooking” or Cooking Vocational Schools project were also presented. The special exhibition section devoted particular attention to the preparation of quality tea and coffee, and one also could not miss the traditional wine and beer tastings and culinary shows directly at exhibitors' stands.
Quotes about the fairs
Marian Jurečka,
Minister of Agriculture, Czech Republic:
SALIMA is an important and
traditional trade fair which provides space not only for the presentation of
both technology and quality food manufacturers from the Central European area,
but also for the debates on the future of agriculture and food in the Czech
Republic and the European Union. I wish all exhibitors to meet their
expectations, to managed to develop business cooperation, establish new
contacts and to present their products well.
Krystyna Gurbiel,
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland:
On behalf of the Agriculture Minister Stanisław Kalemba I
want to thank the Czech Ministry of Agriculture and the management of the Brno
Exhibition Centre for inviting Poland as a partner country of the Salima fair. The
Czech Republic is one of our biggest partners in trade of agricultural and food
products and Salima is one of the most important trade fairs in the region, so
we are very happy about our participation. The best proof of how important this
trade fair is for the Republic of Poland is our large participation.
Miroslav Toman,
President of the Food Chamber of the Czech Republic:
I am very happy that this show has been in existence for
forty years, and I believe that it will continue as successfully, as will also
thrive the Czech food industry and the Czech agriculture. I am very pleased
that Czech producers are loyal to this exhibition and that also our consumers
are slowly returning to Czech food, because this healthy nationalism is needed
in my opinion. I wish all exhibitors to thrive not only here at the show, but
also in their production.
Katalin Horvát, Project Manager of the Agricultural
Marketing Centre, Hungary:
The
Agricultural Marketing Centre, which is part of the Hungarian Tourism company
and helps promote the Hungarian agricultural and food products in foreign
markets, brought seven companies from different areas of the food industry to
Brno this year. One of the companies has its international premiere in their
Brno presentation. The main objective of the Hungarian exhibitors is to find
new contacts and develop concrete cooperation with Czech partners.
Balázs Debeczeny, Sales Manager, Paprissimo, Hungary:
The
first two days have been very beneficial. We had very interesting meetings at
our stand, we are preparing a company presentation for a retail chain.
Georgi Ivanchev, owner of Krez trade and services company:
The
Bulgarian wines are good, but they lack better popularity in the Czech Republic.
That is why I came to VINEX last year and founded a company in Brno, which
currently specializes in imports of Bulgarian wines. We do our best to meet
directly with the customers and the fair helps us to do that, we are also
meeting with our partners and present our customers at our stand.
Agata Nowakowska, Sales
Manager, Crispy Natural, Poland:
The
aim of this trade mission is to present our natural products, which are based
on dried fruits and vegetables with the help of innovative technology. We would
like to promote their quality and find partners for long-term cooperation. We
will evaluate the results of the negotiations within a month or two, but there
is a good atmosphere and we meet nice people.
Eva Šachová, Marketing Manager, Bohemilk:
We
won the gold Salima for our whole milk in a glass bottle and also the KLASA certificate
for two of our products. We are satisfied with the participation. Our stand was
quite busy especially the first two days when the professional community came
to visit. Customers came to meetings and tasted the novelties for the upcoming
season from our Bohemilk dairy as well as the other dairies in Olešnice and
Jihlava.
Ondřej Sýkora, import manager, GTQ:
We
focus on importing high-quality Greek products and we are pleased that it is
also demonstrated by the Golden Salima for our extra virgin olive oil from the
Sitia region of Crete. I appreciate this award very much and I believe that
this is another step to bringing our products to the knowledge of the general
public.
Radovan Banna, manager, Včelpo:
We
won the Golden Salima for our Floral Paste Honey, which is filled into aluminium
bags with a plastic screw cap, a novelty in packaging of honey. People come to
our stand and look out for what we have been honoured, and they ask. It is a
good promotion of the company, we are satisfied with the participation at the
fair.
Igor Ferenc, Sales Manager, APIMED, Slovakia:
The
Czech market is very close and also important to us. Therefore, the Golden
Salima for our Barrique Mead is of great importance to us, as is the
participation in the trade fair in Brno itself.
Ivo Moravec, company director, Espresso:
We
prepared the CAFE RESERVA concept for the fair, developed with Italian coffee
guru Mr. Gian Luigi Nora who is very focused on green ideas. We are also
presenting the Italian coffee brand Vergnano here. I hope that the Czech market
will recover and people will once again begin to attend more trade fairs, they
will compared and watch things they have not seen before. Gastronomy should
always be about testing, tasting, and one can not get that in any e-shop. That
is why this fair is important and should be interesting in the future.
Eva Kubálková, key account manager for Kand:
We are mainly introducing our Kand ketchup in Brno, along
with other traditional Czech products such as Malva mustard or cranberries and
cranberry compote. We present our company at the fair will mainly so that the
lay and professional public could see that we exist, and could get to know our
products and their quality.
Miloš Lešikar, Deputy
Director of the Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry:
Our partners present at the joint stand are very satisfied.
EMBAX is a bit smaller when it comes to the number of exhibitors, but the
interest in products of partners – cardboard, cups and similar products – is
overwhelming.
Petr Kříž, Managing
Director, TBA Plasty:
I can only say positive things about EMBAX. We are satisfied,
fifty percent of the time we have discussed with new clients and visitors to
our stand, and our long-term customers are interested in our innovative
products.
Martin Bělík, Creative
Director, DataLine:
PRINTexpo is smaller than we expected in the number of
exhibitors, but we have a sufficient number of meetings with customers and one
can see that there is still a demand for classical sheet printing. Polygraphy is
not dead!
