This autumn in Cologne: The 31st Anuga with more than 6,500 suppliers

The 31st Anuga, which will be held in Cologne from 8th to 12th October 2011, is once again expected to attract around 6,500 suppliers from about 100 countries. The estimated 150,000 international trade buyers will be treated to a superlative supermarket that is clearly organized into ten trade shows which focus on key themes and enable visitors to directly and easily access the entire range of products on the world market. The biggest and most international of the Anuga trade shows is Anuga Fine Food, the fair for delicatessen and gourmet products and general provisions. The event, which features around 3,500 exhibiting companies, is the most important platform for manufacturers and importers of delicatessen products and their customers from the food trade and the catering sector.

The range of products at Anuga Fine Food encompasses all aspects of international cooking, from Mediterranean cuisine to Asian and Australian specialities, spices and fine ingredients from the Orient, and exotic dishes and beverages from Africa and the countries of South and Central America. One of the fair's major themes will be Italy, which will demonstrate its undisputed food and beverage expertise as the partner country of Anuga 2011. One of its platforms will be the central pavilion of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (Istituto nazionale per il Commercio Estero, I.C.E.) in Hall 11.2. Italy is particularly well positioned in traditional product ranges such as pasta, pesto and antipasti.

The product range of Anuga Fine Food
Mediterranean cuisine is not only tasty but also very healthy. People on the other side of the globe, in Asia, also love crispy vegetables and delicate seafood. Increasing numbers of consumers who have learned to appreciate these foreign culinary pleasures as tourists no longer wish to do without these exotic delicacies when they get back home. The delicatessen sector was the first to respond to this trend, and it has been supplying the trade and the catering sector with antipasti, bamboo shoots, tortillas and seaweed for years. Ingredients such as basmati rice, rigatoni noodles and exotic spices are also essential. What's more, the variety of available flavours continues to increase, even among rustic German products.

Experts estimate that the German delicatessen sector has an annual turnover of almost ¤2.5 billion. Except for major players such as the financial holding IFR Capital, which owns delicatessen companies like Nadler and Homann as well as the fast food chain Nordsee, most of the firms in this sector are medium-sized enterprises. Although the Develey Group has an annual turnover that is nowhere near as high as the more than ¤750 million generated by IFR, the family-run business from Unterhaching near Munich has been one of the top five companies in the sector in Germany for many years. Over the past few decades, the Develey Group has built up a Europe-spanning mustard empire with an annual turnover of around ¤250 million. The Group's brands include Düsseldorfer Löwensenf, Bautz'ner, Develey and Reine de Dijon. Now in its fourth generation as a family-owned enterprise, Germany's leading mustard manufacturer has about 1,300 employees throughout Europe and also supplies ketchup to the McDonald's fast food chain. The company manufactures products at six plants in Germany and three locations just outside the country. With a market share of 30 per cent of the German mustard market by volume, Develey even surpasses the multinational Swiss food manufacturer Nestlé (which produces the Thomy brand).

“Anuga provides us with the most important platform on which to promote our international business,” says Develey CEO Michael Durach. “The trade show is also ideal for maintaining contact with our German customers.” At this year's Anuga, the time-honoured company particularly wants to emphasize the strategy for its German brands and highlight the regional diversity of its products. “For me, the fact that I can personally interact with our customers here is very important,” emphasizes Durach, thus confirming that the trade visitors have a high level of decision-making authority.

To date, very few companies from the German delicatessen industry have attempted to expand to foreign markets. Exports generally play a minor role for the manufacturers of German specialities such as potato salad, noodle salad and coleslaw. Most businesses therefore operate in the regional and national market, which they of course also reach at Anuga. By contrast, many foreign companies have discovered business opportunities in the German market and want to use Anuga Fine Food to further expand the scope of their international business.

These companies include the Italian noodle sauce producer Saclà, which has been exhibiting at Anuga ever since the brand was introduced in the German market in 2001. “The world's leading food fair Anuga provides the company with an ideal platform on which to present its international expertise and offer a discussion forum for its partners from all over the world,” says Detlef Kluge, Managing Director of Saclà Deutschland. Saclà is a delicatessen product manufacturer based in the northern Italian town of Asti. This year it aims to further exploit its business opportunities by benefiting from the fact that Italy is Anuga's partner country and will therefore attract the full attention of visitors to the world's leading food fair.

Encompassing about 1,000 exhibiting companies, “bella Italia” has been the largest foreign contingent at Anuga for the past 20 years or so. “As a company that's based in northern Italy, Saclà will especially strengthen the 'Made in Italy' seal of quality through its innovative potential and the geographic origin of its specialities,” says Kluge, who has also announced that more new products will be launched soon and presented at Anuga Fine Food 2011 in October.

This continuous cultivation of brands and product ranges, whose results can be admired every two years at Anuga Fine Food, is becoming increasingly important for many small and medium-sized exhibitors. The companies need to do this because they have to find customers for their outstanding product ranges in as many countries as possible so that they can continue to impress their trading partners with their performance. That's because manufacturers that only offer standard products are subject to the greatest price pressures and are becoming increasingly interchangeable in the opinion of the trade.

Anuga Fine Food, which focuses on gourmet and delicatessen products and general provisions, is the biggest and most international of the Anuga trade shows. The companies exhibiting here will include A. Viani, Develey, Di Gennaro, Fuchs, Herbert Kluth, Carl Kühne, Saclà, Schamel, Seeberger KG and Seitenbacher (all from Germany) as well as international companies such as Ajinomoto, Assan Gida San. ve Tic. A.S., BIP Holland BV, Del Monte International, Delverde Industrie Alimentari SPA, Fazlani Exports Pvt Ltd., Monari Federzoni S.p.A., Monini S.p.A., Quai Sud SARL, Scana Noliko N.V., Scandic Food A/S, Sea Value, Struik, Thai Union and Unaprol Consorzio Olivicolo Italiano Scarl.

Beginning in July 2011, the trade fair's website will include a list of exhibitors taking part in Anuga 2011 which is updated on a daily basis.