Briefly about SIAL

In the next issue of Trade magazine we are going to discuss SIAL in length, but for now just a few things while the memories are still fresh.

The last time I went to the SIAL trade show in Paris was four years ago, and this October we had great expectations when our flight departed to the French capital. It was a good start that there were lots of Hungarian exhibitors, some of them collectively in the booth of the Agricultural Marketing Centre (AMC), while others independently. As a matter of fact I was even a little surprised, hearing more and more complaints from companies about the raw material and product shortage. Some firms explained it to me that for them this year’s presence at SIAL wasn’t about finding new business partners, as they can hardly supply their present customers with products in the quality and quantity required – their trade fair presence had more of a “we simply have to be there” type of motivation. Besides the questions of what these companies were selling and for how much, another factor has become relevant: when?! It isn’t only in Hungary that prices are changing overnight, since the same trend prevails at an international trade exhibition too, and this raises several questions even in those partnership relations that go back many years. On the other, hand today everyone is more than prepared for surprises.

SIAL is still a large-scale, spectacular event. The organisers can be proud of themselves, as there were 265,000 visitors and sustainability issues aside, 80% of them came from outside of France, representing more than 200 countries. Exhibitor presence was also stunning, as the booths covered more than 250,000m², showcasing more than 400,000 products. It raised the prestige of the event further that approximately 8,000 purchasing manages came, with a purchasing power of about EUR 50bn.

We could list the different innovations for long hours. It is revealing that nearly 80% of products were plant-based, representing the “alternative” category in every segment, paying attention to sustainable production, manufacturing, packaging, shipping and offering. There weren’t only many of these, but they also went home with most of the awards.

Personally my biggest experience was tasting cultured meat for the first time, and let me tell you that it surpassed all expectations. It is needless to say that the queue of visitors was one of the longest at the booth where SIAL-goers had the chance to try cultured meat.

This year’s SIAL was a great experience for every visitor – we will tell you in detail about this in the next issue of Trade magazine! //

Best regards,

Zsuzsanna Hermann, Editor in Chief