The 53rd edition of Cibus Tec (Koeln Parma Exhibitions - KPE): from 24 to 27 October, Parma once more becomes a special global meeting place for the mechanical-food sector, conceived for sharing knowledge of technological innovation and stimulating investments in, and the growth of, the business supply chain.
1,200 exhibitors are confirmed, including the top Made in Italy mechanical-food companies and 400 foreign brands coming from 30 nations; 40,000 visitors are also expected, coming from Italy and from 120 other countries, with a significant presence of people from Europe, the United States, South America and Africa.
On the back of its inclusion in the Koelnmesse international trade fair circuit, Cibus Tec is ready to perform its role as a showcase of excellence, in which operators, producers and experts can find evolved food&beverage technologies, from the transformation of raw materials to packaging, touching on all the key issues in the sector.
What is more, the trade fair (one of the longest-running in the world) benefits from an ideal location in an extraordinary area which contains 60% of national food production within a 200 km radius.
«It’s no coincidence, observed Antonio Cellie, CEO of Koeln Parma Exhibitions – that the strength and success of the trade show depend on two variables: the vocation to promote innovation and the ability to attract key geographical areas of the sector. At Cibus Tec we add a third element, an “on the ground” experience, thanks to which the Food Valley, on the days of the fair, transforms into the setting for an ideal polycentric and multi-sector “factory-tour”, during which visitors can connect insights, knowledge and experiences inside and outside the show. Finally, the fact that the Italian food tech sector, in Parma in particular, has an innate capacity to interpret needs coming from abroad and turn them into “tailor-made” solutions which adapt the knowledge and processes already developed with success for the Made in Italy agri-food sector to international markets, should not be underestimated».
Acting as interpreter of two fundamental values for its reference sector – that is, passion for quality food and invaluable know-how - Cibus Tec offers this year a number of significant new developments, confirming its ability not only to make the most of our country’s technologies, but also to successfully engage with foreign businesses and companies. One example is the Top Buyers Program, the incoming programme set up in partnership with the ICE Agency and with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region, which will see the presence of 3,000 key executives of food&beverage companies coming from over 60 countries, including the Middle East and South-East Asia.
How the trade show is evolving
Besides reconfirming its leadership in events dedicated to processing and packaging technologies for fruit and vegetable-based products and for the dairy sector, the 53rd edition of Cibus Tec has been chosen by the market as the reference event also for the ready meals, meats, alternative proteins and beverages sectors, hosting major global brands.
Space given to start-ups and AI
A further peculiarity of the 2023 edition is the largest area dedicated to the best food tech and artificial intelligence start-ups. Dozens of businesses have, in fact, been selected, which will be presenting interesting artificial intelligence and robotics applications to the public: innovative solutions which, from the cultivation to the packaging of the processed products, and to nutritional analysis processes, will allow for a more sustainable, efficient and safe approach to food. The project makes use of the collaboration with Le Village by Crédit Agricole, the ICE Agency and other important international partners.
NextGen: the packaging path
In a period of great change for the food sector, in which the consumer, always attentive to what ends up on the table, is looking for healthy, safe and sustainable products, Cibus Tec enriches the trade show offer with a special itinerary focused on packaging: “NextGen. The future perspectives of food pack”. The itinerary covers three levels. The first, exhibitive, involves hundreds of brands in the sector, ready to present innovations relating to alternative packaging and highly-automated technologies; the second, experiential, sees the functioning of three production lines that will take the visitor to the centre of processes in the dairy and bakery products world; finally, the third, conceived to identify emerging trends, also with regards to digitalisation, sustainability, innovation, the ecological transition, alternative packaging and food safety, through a rich programme of conferences.
An arena for Food safety
With regards to the future of food safety, Cibus Tec boasts the presence of important Italian and foreign suppliers of equipment and solutions for the laboratory and analysis. Together with LabWorld.it, it organises the LabWorld Arena (a permanent area for meetings on the topic), hosting also a large Italian conference on the challenges and solutions for combatting food contamination.
The trade show has also been chosen by national and international bodies as a platform for offering training, exchange and analysis on the biggest challenges faced by the food supply chain. The National Association of Food Technologists, in particular, the Regional Associations of Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche and Umbria, will use Cibus Tec to hold three training events with the issue of training credits to registered members.
The Machinery Observatory for Food & Beverage
The establishment of the first Machinery Observatory for Food & Beverage was announced by Thomas Rosolia (Chairman of Koeln Parma Exhibitions) in July during the press conference presenting the Cibus Tec trade show: developed with the support of Nomisma, and dedicated to the Italian mechanical-food industry, it has the objective of identifying dimensions, performances, markets and competitiveness indices of the supply chain on an international scale. On this the occasion, an analysis was presented of the positioning of Italian machinery on international markets in the light of the sector’s strong propensity for export, which in the first quarter of 2023 recorded a growth of 20% compared to the same period in 2022.
Despite the current uncertain international macro-economic scenario, Nomisma believes there are real possibilities for a further expansion of the Italian export of technologies for food&beverage in the coming years, both in more mature markets and in emerging ones. In the case of markets where the presence of Italian machinery is already well-established, the greatest opportunities for growth are expected to be in the USA, already the leading market for Italian exports. There are also excellent prospects regarding Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. Emerging markets worthy of mention include a number in the Middle East (first and foremost Israel, Suadi Arabia and Qatar), Africa (especially Angola, Senegal and Marocco) and East Europe (Slovenia, Serbia and Romania), thanks to expanding economies and food industries and significant growth in the demand for Italian machinery.
