Exclusive: Julien Bonvallet, Informa Markets, on This Year’s Fi Europe
“There is Quite a Shift From New Product Development Towards Reformulation”
Fi Europe co-located with Hi Europe returns to France this year from December 6 to 8. For the first time, the leading ingredients exhibition will take place at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles – occupying four halls with more than 1,200 exhibitors, ranging from leading ingredients suppliers through to highly specialized newcomers. The in-person show will be framed and supported by an extensive online event, giving attendees countless opportunities and greater flexibility to source, connect and innovate – be it virtually, in-person or both. European Baker and Biscuit talked to Julien Bonvallet, Group Brand Director, Informa Markets, about this year’s edition of the well-known ingredients event.
1. Can you tell us what visitors can expect from this edition of FiE?
In terms of participation, we expect about 1200 exhibiting companies at the show and the attendance is forecasted to be over 20,000 food ingredients professionals and even though it’s fair to say that events are still recovering from the pandemic’s impact, we haven’t seen a significant drop in terms of number of countries in attendance so we still expect a similar geographical representation as with previous editions.
This year we’re back with the full content program so there will be various theaters on the show floor, a couple of those are new, and we have a very rich content program. Another novelty is that we’ve changed the venue this year and we will now be in a more central location in Paris. It’s an investment from us as an organizer, but we recognize that the previous venue had its challenges in terms of networking opportunities and entertaining your teams or customers after show hours.
In terms of features at the event, visitors will find some of the very successful features we’ve always had like the New Product Zone, but we will also have an Innovation Hub, Exhibitor Showcases, which we didn’t have in the last edition because of restrictions, and we’ll have, of course, some of the other programs that we run. The Startup Innovation Challenge has received a record number of entries this year. We’ve had over 70 entries, which is the highest number to date.
This year we will also run the Fi Innovation Awards which is something we’ve been doing for many years but we’re seeing a good number of entries as well, so that suggests that despite everything happening within the industry, innovations are still being launched and that’s an opportunity, of course, for the attendees to just discover trends that they can take advantage of for their new product developments.
2. What are the main themes that you’ve set out to cover in this edition of the trade show?
Based on recent surveys, we’ve identified some recurring themes that we’ve incorporated into the content program – such as reformulation, regulatory frameworks, plant based, etc. These are themes that we’ve been providing a lot of content on in the last few years. What we are putting a bit more emphasis on this year will be supply chain disruptions and opportunities.
We will also be holding a lunch-and-learn session, which is more of a round table format where leading industry experience and innovation will be mostly focused on the future – the innovations that will be disrupting the food industry in the longer term.
Another great networking opportunity will be the women’s networking breakfast where, basically, we’ll have a number of panel discussions focused on leadership, diversity and inclusion strategies, and how women are transforming the food industry.
We will also be launching a Sustainability Hub, which will consist of a theater where the sessions and content will focus exclusively on sustainability. We will cover topics such as food waste, circular economy, and regenerative agriculture. This year, all of our content will be free to attend.
The physical trade show will be supplemented by the online event – the content program will kick off the week before the show starts, will continue throughout the week in Paris and two weeks post show. Everything that we’ll be presenting live will also live stream on the platform so attendees will be able to have access to all the content even if they are unable to attend in person.
This platform will be supporting the event and offering visitors new tools to connect before the show and initiate conversations and plan meetings before the event itself. All attendees will also be listed on the platform and exhibitors can engage with them, and this is something new that we were not able to offer in the past.
3. Please reflect on the challenges the industry faces in regards to employment, price volatility and supply chain disruptions.
We carried out a survey and we tried to identify what the current industry challenges are and how the professionals are mitigating those challenges and the results were unsurprising. Delays and disruptions in supply chains, and energy costs. But at the same time, data suggests that there’s an opportunity for ingredient sellers within Europe because the rise in transport costs is overlapping with the demand for more local products. So a lot of the buyers have indicated that they were looking for more local suppliers because it solves two problems at the same time. Another current strategy is to have alternative suppliers, not necessarily to replace existing suppliers but more of a backup to have in case of missed shipments and other shipping challenges.
Another trend we’ve observed is that a lot of the companies that we spoke to have actually taken steps towards refocusing on reformulation rather than new product development and, again, that’s a response to some of their ingredients or material increases in price or just their availability being impacted. So once again this is an opportunity for exhibitors because they might be able to fulfill some of those needs and reformulation has always been a big part of R&D. There has been quite a shift from new product development towards reformulation and just in general a reduction of the investments across research and development, marketing and advertising. A lot of our customers, whether they are buyers or sellers, have indicated that they’re also exploring new geographies.
4. How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced this edition of the trade show in terms of attendance, exhibitors, logistics, etc.?
You can read the rest of this article in the September-October issue of European Baker & Biscuit, which you can access by clicking here.