This year’s BioFach, world leading organic trade fair held in Nuremberg, Germany 13-16 February, was considered by most international visitors a success. While talk around the show was that the exhibition area was much smaller and trade visitor numbers were down, BioFach organizers said 41,794 trade visitors (2012: 40,315) from 126 countries (international share 44%) were delighted with the high-quality, varied and innovative range of products from the 2,413 exhibitors at BioFach, 207 of them in the VIVANESS health and beauty fair. In der Veranstaltungs- analyse stechen zwei Trends hervor: 2013 kamen zur Weltleitmesse erneut rund 6.000 Fachhändler (Kategorie Einzelhandel, Naturkost & Reformwaren); das entspricht 16 % der Facheinkäufer.
41.794 Besucher aus 126 Ländern, internationaler Anteil 44 % In the 2013 event analysis, two trends stand out: Around 6,000 dealers attended (retail category, natural food & health products), a 16% of trade buyers. The international share of total visits increased from 41 to 44%.
Udo Funke, show director said: “The ranking of the groups of visitors by sector continues to be led by specialist retailers. At the same time we were delighted once again about growing participation from abroad. Our customers appreciate the clear focus on certified organic food, the consequent review of the strict admission criteria, but also the extraordinary diversity of ideas, to provide them with the framework program and the special shows.”
Most visitors to BioFach / Vivaness came from the retail sector (2013: 37%) (Natural Foods and Goods, Food, general, cosmetic / beauty shop, wine / delicatessen, textiles and other natural products), the Wholesale/ Import & Export (19%) (Health food & health products, foods in general), the manufacturing (18%) (food, beverages, cosmetics / chemist goods, textiles and other natural products), agricultural and aquaculture sector (11%) and the service sector (8%) (Associations / Authorities, Hotels & Restaurants).
Miguel Montesinos of Spanish organic distributor La Finestra sul Cielo Espana said the new Quinua Real syrup introduced at the show got lots of attention from serious buyers. He received signed orders from the UK, The Netherlands, Dubai and other countries. “I’m very happy with the BioFach show, and while we saw fewer visitors from Germany and Europe, there were more from Asia and the Middle East,” he said.
Mexico-based organic agave sweetener company, The iidea Co. was busy at the popular Mexico stand. Karla Padilla said the firm was satisfied with this year’s event and had a lot of good enquiries and leads. First-time exhibitor at the Australian Certified Organics stand was raw organic choco- late company Pana Chocolate, surprised by the positive response at BioFach. “We received well over 100 enqui- ries in the 4 days – this ranged from large distributors, to emerging distributors, retailers and online stores,” Michael Buschel said. “We are very confident we have secured future business from retailers and distributors. Already we have a retail stockist in Berlin who is now selling our full range of chocolate bars in their store.”
French supplier of quinoa, rice and cereal products Markal has been at BioFach for 15 years and said there were fewer visitors this year. Sales manager Yasmina Hadj said: “We saw our regular customers, but were not happy with the overall numbers of leads and enquiries.”
The top 5 visitor countries were led by Germany with 23,524 visitors, followed by Austria (1701), Italy (1,674), France (1,197) and the Netherlands (1181). The next organic trade fair in the world duo BIOFACH and VIVANESS will be held on 12 to 15 February, 2014.