ICEX and Alimentaria Exhibitions come together to support the internationalization of the sector
ICEX, Spain Export and Investment and Food Exhibitions have signed an agreement to support the internationalization of Spanish companies participating as exhibitors in Barcelona Wine Week and in Alimentaria Barcelona.
In the first edition of the Barcelona Wine Week, which will be held from February 3 to 5, 2020 in Hall 8 of the Montjuic de Fira site in Barcelona, wineries from all over Spain will be held that will represent almost all of the various wine regions , offering an image of the diversity and excellence of wines from Spain to the rest of the world.
For its part, in the next edition of Alimentaria Barcelona, which will take place from April 20 to 23 at the Gran Vía de Fira site in Barcelona, it is expected to revalidate the participation of the 4,500 exhibiting companies that attended the event last edition, of those that about 3,000 were Spanish. Thus, the attendance of some 150,000 visitors is expected, more than 30% international from more than 150 countries.
Alimentaria and Barcelona Wine Week act as platforms for representing the export offer of the Spanish agri-food sector to the rest of the world and are important sources of attraction for professional and prescribing audiences.
ICEX will support both contests by selecting international buyers in the five continents with the aim of increasing their portfolio of Spanish products. In addition, through the Economic and Commercial Offices, they will help these buyers to close their interviews on the digital platform enabled by Alimentaria and will subsequently monitor the success of these meetings. Under this collaboration agreement, it seeks to capture more than 100 international buyers for both contests, which would be added to those invited by the organization itself.
María Peña, CEO of ICEX underlines that “with this action our action plan is reinforced to support the internationalization of food and beverage companies, as well as to influence their commitment to market diversification and channel deepening”.
For Constantí Serrallonga, general director of Fira de Barcelona, ”the agreement strengthens the projection and prestige of the Spanish industry by promoting the visit of international buyers invited to both international reference salons”.
Internationalization is one of the strategic objectives of Alimentaria. As J. Antonio Valls, general director of Alimentaria Exhibitions, emphasizes, “the show has always worked in parallel to the internationalization of the Spanish food industry itself and has proved to be an excellent platform for the external promotion of our food and beverages”.
The Spanish agri-food sector has followed a consolidated internationalization trajectory in the last thirty years, with more than 50,000 million euros exported in 2018. For María Naranjo, director of Food, Wine and Gastronomy at ICEX, “this mission of international buyers, that we finance and those that we advise so that they know more thoroughly the Spanish companies in both Halls, it is a very effective way to support the sector in its internationalization process ”.
