Ham hub at Spanish show to be ‘biggest ever’

By Oscar Rousseau

- Last updated on GMT

Alimentaria 2018 takes place in Barcelona from 16-19 April
Alimentaria 2018 takes place in Barcelona from 16-19 April

Related tags Pork International trade Meat

Spain is hoping to supercharge its pork exports with Intercarn, the meat arena for trade show Alimentaria 2018, set to be the biggest ever.

Intercarn exhibitor bookings have sold out five months before the food, drink and gastronomy trade show Alimentaria 2018 has even begun, suggesting a strong supply and demand for Spanish meat.

It has become the leading sector within Alimentaria and it is now an event in its own right,​” said Antonio Valls, managing director, Alimentaria Exhibitions.

Over 90 percent of the country’s leading meat companies will be present at the show; more than 500 companies will be exhibiting at Intercarn. The new thing is that many new international companies will be present too. We have the UK, Germany, Romania, France, Italy, Poland and many others.​”

Big-hitters attending

Alimentaria’s Intercarn should occupy around 15,000 square meters, increasing the floor space it had at same event in 2016 by 11%.

As Valls said, Spain’s leading meat producers, including Campofrio Food Group and Noel​ Alimentaria, will be present. Organisers hope to welcome tens of thousands of chorizo-hungry meat importers from retail, hospitality and wholesale as Spain aims to grow its exports.

Enhancing global competitiveness comes as Spain’s declining population has presented a unique challenge to a meat industry steadily increasing output year-on-year. Spain now has a meat surplus. This has intensified the need to forge new partnerships with international buyers for quintessentially Spanish products like chorizo and jamón ibérico.

Paulo Soares, president of Intercarn and general regional manager for southern Europe of Campofrio Food Group, said the event has helped find new markets for meat.

Intercarn has supported the sector in this growth and has helped to promote its export capacity and improve its image,​” he added.

Today, Spain exports around 40% of the meat it produces. The industry has long been one of the country’s success stories, and was a vital source of revenue during the 2008 economic crisis.

More recently however, exports have declined​. Pork export sales dropped by 2% in volume in the first half of 2017, according to data from Agencia Tributaria.

Related topics Meat

Related news

Show more

comments

Post your comment

We will not publish your email address on the website

These comments have not been moderated. You are encouraged to participate with comments that are relevant to our news stories. You should not post comments that are abusive, threatening, defamatory, misleading or invasive of privacy. For the full terms and conditions for commenting see clause 7 of our Terms and Conditions ‘Participating in Online Communities’. These terms may be updated from time to time, so please read them before posting a comment. Any comment that violates these terms may be removed in its entirety as we do not edit comments. If you wish to complain about a comment please use the "REPORT ABUSE" button or contact the editors.

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars