Alimentaria 2012 is promoted around the world with its ambitious international expansion plan

One of the core themes of the next edition of Alimentaria will be internationalisation; Alimentaria Exhibitions, the event's organising company, is developing commercial action plans and promotion worldwide, with support, alongside other activities, in the agreement with the main organisations for promotion overseas and presence at top events. The show will take place from 26 to 29 March, 2012, in the Fira de Barcelona's Gran Vía venue.

Alimentaria Exhibitions has just concluded a collaboration agreement with ACC1Ó in which the support agency for the Catalan company's competitiveness will help to raise the profile of the show, particularly in emerging markets. This alliance's sphere of influence is found in the following countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and the Arab Emirates. Additionally, thanks to the Catalan Wines USA Platform, specific activities will be carried out in the US wine market, to raise awareness of Alimentaria and the Intervin show, with events in Boston and Atlanta.

The business promotion centres (BPCs) provided by ACC1Ó aim to reaffirm and reinforce awareness of, and interest in, Alimentaria worldwide. One of the main roles of these offices will be to gain potential professional visitors and future participants in the business meetings organised by Alimentaria via the Hosted Buyers programme, which invites buyers from the field of distribution and imports/exports to the show to set up contacts with exhibiting companies.

An example of the show's expansion is the work carried out in areas such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East; as outlined by the opinion of the director of CPN Dubai, Elie Anbar, “After a number of years working together to promote the show and attract important buyers to the area, Alimentaria, considered one of the most important shows in Europe, is now known around the Middle East”. Similarly, Jordi Maluquer de Motes, the director of CPN Singapore, has shown great enthusiasm for having been able to collaborate with Alimentaria and work on promoting it. He believes that, despite the relatively low level of awareness Southeast Asian companies have of the Spanish business industry, “Alimentaria is one of the few exceptions given that many Asian food and drink distribution companies know, and have visited, the show”.

Alimentaria is also supported by: Amec (Spanish acronym for the Multi-sector Business Association) to promote the show in China through its Shanghai office, and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Miami, in charge of promoting Alimentaria 2012 in the global US market and forming a key part of the International Projects developed by the show.

Presence around the world
With the aim of consolidating and increasing international exhibitor presence at Alimentaria and promoting the participation of companies from markets with difficult access, the show's organisation has unequivocally opted for the new coverage in the following geographical areas: Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco.

As a result, Alimentaria has decided to expand its network of international commercial agents spread over five continents and currently spanning a sphere of influence of close to 50 countries; to be precise, it has increased the number of agents by 20% with regard to the 2010 edition. Furthermore, the show has developed different types of communicative tools, most notably the 20,000 commercial brochures oriented towards the exhibitor and translated into five different languages: Spanish, English, French, Japanese and Chinese.

In line with this market expansion, over recent weeks members of the Alimentaria organisation have held a series of interviews in Madrid with representatives from the Thai, Greek, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Hungarian, Turkish, Brazilian, Chilean, US, Philippine, and the Netherlands embassies to promote the show in their countries and to attract their participation. Consequently, it is anticipated that over the coming months new contact with other delegations of interest will be established.

Promotion of the industry's main shows
Over the last few months the profile of Alimentaria has been raised on a global scale at the industry's main events, strengthening and consolidating the show's internationalisation. Since September 2010, the show has been promoted at: World Food Moscow (Moscow, Russia), SIAL (Paris, France) Equip Hotel (Paris, France), ISM (Cologne, Germany), Biofach (Nuremberg, Germany), Gulf Food (Dubai, the United Arab Emirates), Foodex (Tokyo Japan), Prowein (Düsseldorf, Germany), European Seafood (Brussels, Belgium) and Tutto Food (Milan, Italy). Over the coming months Alimentaria will be present at Vinexpo (Bordeaux, France) and Anuga (Cologne, Germany), among others.

Furthermore, the show is developing an international media promotion plan that will feature in over 150 publications – industry reference points – as well as holding an international press conference this coming autumn in Barcelona, which will join specialised journalists from around the world.

In the previous edition, the show experienced an increase of 3% in international participation since around 33% (1,299) of the 4,806 participating companies came from overseas. In the area of international professional visitors, almost 36,000 of the 140,000 were from other countries – more than 25%. This confirms Alimentaria as an international commercial operations centre for the food and drink industry.