Sweet billions as seen at ISM

Sales of sweets are growing world-wide. The ISM sweets and biscuits exhibition will be held between 1-4. February in Cologne. According to Márta Kakuk, Budapest representative of the exhibition, everybody who is somebody in the sector will be there. The ProSweets Köln 2009 exhibition is to be held simultaneously, with 275 exhibitors of materials, packaging and processing technologies and packaging. A packaging conference will also be held on 2. February, focusing on new design trends and the role of packaging in increasing brand value. German exports of sweets totalled almost EUR 2 billion in the first half of 2008, while the value of imported sweets sold in Germany was EUR 1.3 billion. Global retail sales of both chocolate and biscuits were up by 7 percent last year, while sales of candies were up by 6 percent.