Vitafoods Europe 2021: the comeback What was (still is?) the world’s leading nutraceutical event returns to Geneva this year. In a resolutely different and innovative format, since it will simultaneously combine a physical presence and a digital event. A world first for a trade fair of this magnitude. et’s not look back on the year 2020 as ingredients and/or new company concepts. Areas a blank slate of international mee- reserved for new ingredients and new finished tings in the nutraceutical world. products are organised. Instead, let’s look to the near future.* Note the setting up of an area dedicated to sustai- The Palexpo exhibition centre in Geneva will once nability in the nutraceutical industry. again host Vitafoods Europe at the beginning of Secondly, digital. It aims to allow market players October 2021. An event in more ways than one. who cannot or do not want to travel to be «pre- Over the years, Vitafoods Europe has established sent» anyway. Informa Markets is therefore an- itself as the must-attend event for the nutraceuti- nouncing this new format which is based on two cal industry. In May 2019, a record year, the show pillars. On the one hand, live sessions will be avai- received 24,211 visitors (+15% compared to 2018) who came to discover the innovations of 1,151 exhibitors (from more than 110 countries). The « Our aim with Vitafoods Europe 2021 is to combine vast majority of visitors were Europeans (58%) - the global connectivity offered by the virtual with a North Americans (2.4% of visitors) were the lar- gest contingent outside Europe. physical presence of stands and visitors » Mostly from small companies (47%), their prima- Chris Lee - Informa Markets ry interest is in ingredients and raw materials (for 68% of them, Vitafoods 2019 survey, multiple res- ponse questionnaire), followed by finished pro- ducts (40%), contract manufacturing (32%). lable online. On the other hand, «our matchma- king service aims to foster collaboration between A HYBRID FORMAT exhibitors and ‘visitors’ and enable ‘networking’ 2021 is not a rebirth of Vitafoods Europe. It is the between like-minded individuals and/or com- birth of what B2B meetings will (almost) certain- panies, wherever they are in the world,» explains ly be from now on: a mixture of face-to-face mee- Chris Lee, Managing Director of Informa Markets. tings (with real stands and real visitors) and re- However, not all exhibitors will play the digital mote connections. A ‘hybrid’ trade fair, therefore. card and cater to virtual visitors. An example? First of all, the physical presence. This year, the While 148 exhibitors are registered in the «Food number of exhibitors is down by more than 11% supplements» category, only 77 (half) will be ac- compared to 2019. What is the reason for this? The cessible digitally. clear drop in the number of Chinese - this year, «only» 192 Chinese companies will make the trip(in 2019, nearly 300 Chinese companies were pre- 1019LIMITS QUICKLY REACHEDThe fact remains that each of the solutions for a sent). A situation that could benefit European hybrid Vitafoods Europe has its limits. market players - especially since the number Total number of The proposed online participation will follow a physical and digital (too?) long series of webinars and other Teams of Indian exhibitors is also marking time - in a exhibitors. context where there is a growing desire to relocate or Zoom meetings. Will the online ‘visitors’ have sourcing as close as possible to the markets. the courage to follow the proposed sessions, pre- As in previous years, national pavilions (the sentations, etc. for a week? The time was taken up Business France pavilion will host some fifty ex- in May by the same Informa Markets with its live hibitors) and thematic resource centres (ome- Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo. For those who ga 3 and probiotics) will highlight innovations in wanted to follow all the offers available, mission growth markets, while others will showcase new impossible: sessions organised in parallel, (too) stnevE — stnemenèvÉ1202 EPORUE SDOOFATIV- 851 -