Experiences and indulgence at this year’s Grüne Woche

By: Tisza Andrea Date: 2025. 05. 16. 11:33

Grüne Woche, a top event of the agricultural and food industry, took place in Berlin at the beginning of the year.

The Grüne Woche, which will be 100 years old next year, welcomed 1500 exhibitors and around 310,000 visitors this year

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/5.

For ten days the international trade fair focused on pressing issues such as food security, sustainable agriculture, innovative technologies and the latest nutritional trends. There were 310,000 visitors at Grüne Woche, which attracted 1,500 exhibitors in 20 halls on about 120,000m².

Christophe Hansen, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food: „We need to make the farming profession interesting again”

Award-winning start-ups and regional trade concepts

The international appeal of the Grüne Woche was evident once again in, with the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) taking place for the 17th time in parallel with the event. This conference seeks to make organic farming sustainable and it has brought together approximately 2,000 experts to discuss key issues for the future of global agriculture and food.

63 countries’ agriculture ministries have reaffirmed their commitment to climate protection and biodiversity

Grüne Woche is an excellent platform for creative ideas and forward-looking concepts, so start-ups are attaching growing importance to the event as a test market for innovative products and solutions. At the Startup Days ideas for a sustainable future were particularly successful. From the ten finalists – who presented their innovative ideas for the agro-tech and food industries to the audience in 2 minutes each – the winner was ValueGrain from Hamburg. The company’s new technology converts beer brine into liquid flour that can be used in breads, pasta and even meat substitutes.

This year’s Startup-Days winner is ValueGrain, a developer of liquid flour technology

Edeka Südwest won the Regional Star trade cooperation award for its collaboration with Pestalozzi Horticulture

Local specialities, free-from and the future under the same roof

The event’s Food-Trend tour promised a culinary journey through several halls of the Grüne Woche, mixing the latest trends with tradition. As part of the tour participants had the opportunity to taste classic Berlin dishes dressed up in the clothes of modern street food, such as ice-cold pork knuckle and Baltic Sea fish sandwiches, while international cuisine lovers could enjoy Nepalese momos, Cuban churros and Swedish hotdog wraps.

In its Free-From section Grüne Woche devoted a special exhibition area to vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free alternatives for the first time this year. Whether insects will pass the test of devoted vegetarians and vegans as a meat alternative can’t be told at the moment, but the high nutritional value of the crunchy cricket snacks, spreads and slices presented here is indisputable.

Eastern Europe in the house!

Student press conferences, youth workshops, start-up days – the Grüne Woche dedicated a whole day to young people. In the young generation hub teenagers were introduced to more than 80 trades from the fields of retail, gastronomy, health and agriculture. Beyond the delicious sausages, beer and traditions, this year Eastern Europe offered a surprising new and intense taste experience.

For instance Puffins from Poland doesn’t freeze-dry fruit and vegetables but puffs them: the water is quickly extracted under high pressure without freezing. The result is crunchier, more aromatic treats with a more intense colour.

Vladimir 2014 from the Czech Republic offers around 40 different flavours of fruit syrup. Made mainly from whole fruit from the region’s producers, the syrups are free from preservatives and artificial colours.

From Bulgaria four types of buffalo cheese were available – à la nature, with chilli, smoked paprika and typical Bulgarian herbs.

Puffins’ puffing process leaves fruits and vegetables crispy, aromatic and intensely coloured

Green food, green life

Sustainability was one of the main topics of Grüne Woche 2025. The “grünerleben” section featured innovative approaches to resource-saving and conscious living, as well as reuse and recycling. In the Re-Use Superstore interactive upcycling workshops called visitors’ attention to the importance of everyone taking an active interest in environmental protection and sustainable consumption. Sustainability also played a role in the presentation of gastronomic trends, from alternative sources of protein from insects, plants and algae to “clean eating” – new ways of eating free-from food. The next Grüne Woche will be on 16-25 January 2026. //

Cautiously optimistic German horticulturists

In 2025 the German horticultural sector is calculating with a slightly better year than 2024 was, even if consumers continue to hold back on their purchases. Sales turnover in the sector was EUR 8.8bn in 2024, a modest increase on the EUR 8.6bn in 2023, but still well below the record EUR 10.1bn realised in 2021. The International Horticulture Trade Show (IPM) in Essen – which ended on 31 January this year – remains the leading trade event, with 1,434 exhibitors (most of them from abroad). //