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Home > CANADA > Business events in Italy
FOOD AND TASTE: ITALIAN EXCELLENCE ON SHOW IN RIMINI
Rome (Ign) - Food for eating out and large-scale distribution, but also biotechnologies and food safety: this is what's on the menu at Mia, the International Food Show (http://www.
miafiera.it/), to be held in Rimini between 10 and 13 February at the Riminifiera exhibition centre. This is a crucial event for companies in the sector, which have the chance not only to exploit a prestigious showcase, but also to meet professionals from all over the world. The event's importance is clear when we look at last year's figures, with 80,239 trade visitors, 2725 from abroad. And for the 2007 edition, the organisers of Mia have set aside a space dedicated to the market of organic and gluten-free products: having been used for years now in school canteens and the best restaurants, organic products have become an attractive product of certain success. The Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) is organising a mission of foreign professionals, with a delegation composed of 19 buyers from the catering and commercial sectors, from various countries (including Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Russia, Tunisia and Turkey). Bilateral meetings between Italian and foreign professionals are scheduled for February 11.
Top quality organisation, then, for an impressively large sector: the Italian eating-out market in 2005 was worth €58bn and AcNielsen, who published this figure, forecast increases in 2008 which will lead the sector to account for 36% of total food expenditure (an increase of 12%, taking it to the record figure of €65.2bn). This goal deservedly rewards the commitment of Italian companies, world leaders in the food industry, both as far as regards restaurant catering and organic foods. Whether regional organic specialities (antipasti, artisanal cheeses and ice-creams, fruit conserves, extra-virgin olive oil, handmade pasta, DOP products, DOC wines) or organic catering, all the fields covered by MIA are sectors in which the Italian food industry excels. The turnover in organic food, for example, increases at an exponential rate year by year. According to figures published by SINAB (the national information system for organic farming) and AIAB (the national association for organic farming), the turnover of the approximately 44,000 Italian organic farms and companies was €2.4bn. This, then, is a field of great potential, for example for those catering companies that decide to distinguish themselves by focussing on the quality and safety of the products they use. Particularly worthy of note, however, are restaurants and pizzerias (whose overall turnover is €31.3bn, up 2.5% on 2004), followed by bars (€20bn, up 2.5%). It is thus no coincidence that the number of restaurants alone has risen to 103,000 over the last five years.
This, then, is a sector which not only shows itself to be already strong, but also subject to future impressive growth: an increasing number of businesses are in fact focussing on top-quality food for non-domestic consumption. The canteen market, for example, is becoming a major challenge for the companies in the sector, above all those focussing on organic products: in Italy, according to Bio Bank, the organic option has already been made by 647 canteen services (+7% on 2004) for a total of around a million meals.
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