Sial celebrates 50th anniversary with record bookings
The exhibition, which first took place in 1964, returns again this year from 19-23 October, and will see record booking rates with 6,000 exhibitors from 100 countries and 150,000 visitors from 200 countries.
Sial reported that 90% of the exhibition surface was booked four months before opening its doors. Nicolas Trentesaux, Sial group director, said: "This clearly shows that a professional fair for professional people, conceived for business and aimed at business, has firmly established itself, even when the economy is less favourable than previous years."
The show, held at Paris Nord Villepinte, will have 20 exhibition sectors, and has expanded by also integrating equipment, technology and services this year. Hall 6 will house fresh meat, fresh poultry, cured and salt meats and frozen products. In halls 1,2,3,4 and 8 there will be national pavilions representing different regions of the world.
Dorothée Gricourt, communications director at Sial Paris, told GlobalMeatNews that, with the 50th anniversary around the corner, while much had changed, the core values remain the same as they were in 1964: an international event with a focus on networking and innovation. Sial now has shows in Canada, Brazil, China, Philippines, France and Abu Dhabi, and Gricourt said the values were the same at every one.
She said of this year’s exhibition: "There will be a big focus on innovation, we will be looking back at what it was before, and what it is now. The show will look at 3D printers and think about what innovation will be in the future. We will look at where we are going to get protein from in the future, there will be experiments and demonstrations."
Trentesaux added: "Innovation has always been united to the Sial image. Since 2012, we have decided to go further, bringing more content to exhibitors and visitors. The goal is to identify emerging trends in food behaviour. The results will be identified in 2014 at Sial Paris."
There will be celebrations to mark the anniversary with a fireworks display that Sial hopes will bring exhibitors and their clients together for better networking.
