«ProdExpo-2019» exhibition results: a record participants and countries number

Prodexpo-2019, 26th international food, beverages and raw materials exhibition took place in Moscow at the Expocenter Central Exhibition Complex from February 11-15, 2019. Expocenter, supported by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, held the exhibition the under the patronage of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

Dmitry Patrushev, Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation:

- ProdExpo is one of the largest food exhibitions in our country. It has established itself as an effective business platform which promotes the international cooperation expansion and leading manufacturers’ experience exchange from multiple world’s countries.

The main food show-2019 of our country consisted of Expocentre complex, crowded with visitors as well as active exhibitors’ negotiations with the customers, vivid new products presentations and a rich business as well.

Vladimir Kashin, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues, Oksana Lut, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Sergey Lisovsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management, Nikolay Kharitonov, Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Regional Policy and Problems of the North and the Far East, Sergey Mitya, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Agrarian and Food Policy and the Natural Resource Mr. Andrey Razin, Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region, Sergey Katyrin, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Polad Bulbul Ogly, Sergey Bednov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Russian Federation, Expocentre JSC CEO. The industry unions representatives, ambassadors and other officials visited the opening ceremony.

Sergey Lisovsky:

- ProdExpo exhibition is really joyful event. This is another step in the agriculture development and in our relationships with our partners. Russian Federation, which first suffered from lack of its foodstuffs, started to manufacture own excellent quality products manufacture to be exported. Certain success share was reached due to our agricultural producers’ participation in the current exhibition, as well as our foreign partners presence, who demonstrate own products at the exhibition.

A solemn ceremony of the artistically marked mailing envelope cancelation, timed to the 60th Expocentre anniversary, took place immediately after the official opening. The envelope cancellation was made by Oksana Lut, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Sergey Katyrin, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Shelikhov, the deputy head of the Federal Communications Agency and Sergey Bednov, Expocentre CEO.

The expositions were demonstrated to the exhibitors and guests and they assessed the products level and quality during VIP tour.

Prodexpo-2019 international exhibition was visited by Gian Marco Centinio, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policy of Italy and Pasquale Terracciano, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Italy in Russian Federation. They both noted the current exhibition importance for Italian companies as wella s expressed own hope for Italian representatives’ presence increase at Expocentre exhibitions.

ProdExpo-2019: Russian food market prospects

•    2 442 companies from 69 countries
•    1 722 Russian companies
•    30 national expositions
•    21 collective regional expositions
•    over 100 000 square meters - gross area
•    66 915 unique visitors from 112 countries

ProdExpo exhibition is one of the most significant events of the current year, according to the experts. A large-scale exhibition covering over 100 thousand square meters presented food, beverages and raw materials for their production of 2442 companies from 69 countries, including from Europe, Asia, America, Africa, Australia in 2019. The current participants and countries number became the record one.

The Russian Federation market still remains interesting and attractive for foreign companies. Foreign participation at ProdExpo-2019 of Belarus companies (87 ones), which participated in all the exhibition sections, became the most prominent. The largest expositions were created by participants from Italy (76 companies), Armenia, China, Azerbaijan, Spain, France, Turkey, Republic of Korea.

Thirty countries’ companies were represented at the state level by national expositions: Azerbaijan, Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Spain, Italy, India, China, Latvia, Macedonia, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Republic of South Ossetia, Serbia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Uruguay, France, Chile, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Japan.

Ethiopia participated in the national exposition for the first time, where it provided coffee, beans, fresh vegetables and fruits, including exotic ones, and Indonesia with traditional national groceries. «Alcoholic beverages» section premiere was the national exposition of Germany, organized by Deutsches Weininstitut GmbH.

The import substitution state program implementation success was demonstrated by 1 722 Russian Federation food and beverages manufacturers and suppliers, 534 of which are exporters.

Twenty one Russian regional expositions demonstrated 165 companies’ products. Russian regional exposures area increased by 28% in 2019 compared to 2018.

The companies from Altai Territory, Amur, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Kursk, Omsk, Orel, Pskov and Ulyanovsk regions were represented within the collective regional expositions for the first time. Permanent participants, namely the Volgograd region, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Kirov, Kostroma, Novosibirsk, Penza regions, the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, the Ryazan, Tver, Tomsk, Tula and Yaroslavl regions attracted a lot of attention.

Collective regional expositions contribute to join Russian and international markets of small and medium-sized businesses unique products, thereby contributing to the region economic development and increasing its visibility. Recently, regional stands have started to acquire a special decoration style, which attracts the visitors’ attention.

28 themed salons provided food from around the world: from basic foods and everyday drinks to delicious delicacies, as well as organic, sports nutrition, for a healthy lifestyle, halal, kosher and exotic foods as well. ProdExpo gathered Russian Federation's largest spirits and wines exposition from over 30 countries.

ProdExpo exhibition managed to establish itself as an effective business platform for a quarter of a century, where it worth looking for new business partners, sign new contracts as well as find out future development trends. «Prodexpo» barometer accurately reflects the food market dynamics, therefore, the experts are interested in the exhibition thematic sections development way. So, «Dairy products. Cheese» (+ 6.7%), Ice Cream Salon (+ 25%), Alcoholic drinks salons. Beer (+ 20%), Ingredients. Nutritional supplements. Raw materials» (+ 16%), «Juices, water. Non-alcoholic beverages» (8%), «Canned food. Sauces, ketchups» (+ 8%) demonstrated own growth in 2019. «Meat and meat products, Sausages. Bird, Egg, Grocery», «Grain products. Pasta. Condiments, Spices» and «Confectionery. Bakery products. Snacks. Nuts, dried fruits», reflecting new trends in the healthy lifestyle industry, showed a good development dynamics.

The high growth rates were demonstrated by both «Products for a healthy lifestyle» due to the healthy lifestyle modern society trend as well as «Multiproduct», which provides the products for restaurants, combining wholesale distribution centers, as well as trading houses which work with small orders.

Specialized «Prodexpo Organic» salon exhibition premiere, which united organic supporters from all over the world, attracted a great interest. 38 companies which have got a certificate valid for 2019 became its participants. Organic products were demonstrated in other sections as well, in particular at the national Serbia, Spain, Italy, Greece, Azerbaijan and Ethiopia stands.

ProdExpo exhibition business program

ProdExpo-2019 exhibition business program was rich and multifaceted. Major international industry forums, conferences, round tables, master classes, and numerous presentations as well as authoritative professional competitions were held successfully. Past events touched on the most important industry development-related thematic areas. There were a lot of premiere events.

The business program was opened by «Russian Federation: Growth, International Cooperation and Export» panel discussion. Federal and regional authorities’ representatives, the largest Russian agribusiness companies as well as leading experts from the domestic agricultural sector visited the session, organized by RBC and Expocentre JSC.

«Organic and retail: issues and solutions» conference became the most important event of the first Organic day of Prodexpo, the largest industry exhibition in Russian Federation. «LukBio Media» LLC, supported by «Expocentre» JSC, organized the current event. Ecological Union and National Organic Union became co-organizers.

The conference dedicated to the organic industry issues attracted the exhibition participants’ and guests’ attention. There was a small video greeting at the event start, recorded by Helena Dreves, a Danish expert in organic farming. Denmark is the organic market development champion. Today 10% of all products sold in Denmark are organic. The success secret is Danish producers had one rules and standards kit from the very beginning and they immediately joined big chains which met the consumer’s needs, having made a discount on organic milk back in 1993.

Barbara Köher-Schulz, Agricultural Products Austrian State Agency BIO department head, who specially arrived in Moscow to visit Prodexpo, spoke about Austria’s best practices. While conducting explanatory campaigns, the Austrian state promotes the organic idea to the masses and provides subsidies for its organic producers as well since they preserve a clean environment by creating a product. By the way, today every fifth farm in Austria is an organic farm.

An increased attention was paid to additional «healthy» product properties and there was a huge difference between organic, farming and natural products as well at «Organic and Retail», «Trigger Points» sessions. Besides they talked about the Russian baby food-related raw materials suppliers requirements as well as the way to pack products and bring them to the market.

besides KVK «Imperiya» and «Expocentre» JSC preared an interesting program as usual: XIV All-Russian food forum «Chains supplier in the network» with the Chains procurement center™; XXI «Own trademark-2019»; manufacturers and retailers forum, XIII «Marketing and advertising forum» фll-Russian food forum. Chains Procurement Center™ managed to gather 110 retail chains, which list includes Magnit, Carousel, Crossroads, O'Key, Maria-Ra, Verny, Spar Russia B.V., Bill, etc. Ыuch famous food market suppliers as Tigran Arzakantsyan, Great Valley famous Armenian cognac brand, as well as Natalia Rothenberg, ARISTOCRATKA new confectionery line owner take part in addition to the largest retail chains.

So, Chains Procurement Center™ united 280 purchasers and 290 suppliers, who conducted about 6000 negotiations on food products supply both within suppliers’ brands and private label products as well.

The state regulation issues in the food quality and safety field became the most important theme of «State regulation in the food quality and safety field» conference, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, the Rosselkhoznadzor and Agroexposervice company.

«Russian hospitality» round table, dedicated to the gastronomic tourism in our country development, took place within business program. It was organized by the Federal Agency for Tourism, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the Russian State University of Tourism and Service and Expocentre JSC.

XIV All-Russian «AlcoCONGRESS-2018» Conference and V «Wine Forum», organized by «Alcoexpert» analytical group, supported by Expocenter, were devoted to the alcohol market issues. The events gathered all the alcohol market’s representatives, including brewers, winemakers and strong alcohol producers. Experts discussed the market development in the medium term. Both Russian winemaking master classes, as well as Russian agricultural winemaking educational seminars series were held at «Russian wine» stand.

«Prospects for baby food development» sixth annual conference within «Decade of Childhood» program attracted an increased specialists’ interest.

The Recruitment Center’s work, organized by Expocentre JSC together with the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC) on the VYBOR Group of Companies basis, has become a unique ongoing exhibition benefit. The exhibitors had an opportunity to post their companies' jobs at the Center's stand, look through the applicants’ resumes, find out the required specialist and get professional advice on the labor market as well. Center’s experts consulted on such issues as the way to effectively recruit staff for a company, in which related industries to find specialists, the way to become the most attractive company for applicant, etc.

«Expocentre» - for counterfeit-free exhibitions» project, aimed at counterfeit goods reduction by the intellectual property issues-related advice provision have been functioning all «Prodexpo-2019» exhibition days.

26th international food exhibition «ProdExpo-2019» competition program united leading professional contests as well as attracted a record participants number. «ProdExpo Organic» was held within ProdExpo For the first time.

«Best Product», «Network Selection», «Innovative Product», «ProdExpo Wine Guide», «For high consumer goods properties» competition, tasting competition and best packaging one were held successfully.

27th ProdExpo 2020 international exhibition will take place in Moscow «Expocentre» from February 10 to February 14, 2020.