Food, the largest fair in southern Europe, opens its doors this Monday within the framework of a revolution in plant-based food proposals. The Anglo-Saxon identifier ‘plant based‘ is configured as the ideal passport to capture the attention of the food industry and the favor of consumers, new winds for the future of food in the West. Vegetable protein is in the focus of the industry that stars Foodwhich with more than 3,000 exhibitors and practically the entire surface of Fira de Barcelona busy shows the unstoppable rise of the trend. Vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians are in luck at the prospect of a new industrial offer that aspires to complete their purchasing options with new functional products. But the diet or product ‘plant based‘ is the reaction and reinterpretation of the industry to the growing consumption of vegetables and plants, but without the rigidity that emanates from the vegan concept.
The food fair ends the pandemic era, after severe wounds in the restaurant and hospitality industry and four years after its last celebration in 2018. It coincides with Hostelco, the international equipment show for hotels, restaurants and communities. Alimentaria faces the 2022 fair with 85,000 square meters of exhibition, an impact of 180 million euros in Barcelona and the forecast of 100,000 visitors, most of them professionals. For the president of Alimentaria, José Luis Bonetthe remarkable element of this year is the internationality of the attendees and the “significant contribution” to economic recovery, at a time when “face-to-face meetings are the ones that work the most”, Rafael Olmos remarked in the presentation of the room, president of hostel room.
Some 1,400 buyers eager to renew supplies for their companies will star in Alimentaria around 12,500 meetings in predictable frenetic business activity. The food industry is the leading industrial sector in Spain, with a turnover of some 130,000 million euros, equivalent to 3% of GDP. Some 30,000 companies, most of them SMEs, that employ more than half a million people (21% of employment in the manufacturing industry). Strategic sector for Fira de Barcelona, in which Spain is the fourth largest exporter in Europe and the fifth in the world.
Despite the rise of vegetable protein, the meat industry is the most important in the Spanish food sector. The Spanish meat industry occupies by far the first place of the entire Spanish food and beverage industry, with a turnover of 31,727 million euros, 28.5% of the entire Spanish food sector, 2.55% of GDP Spanish total and 28.9% of the total employment of the Spanish food industry. In Catalonia, the meat industry accounts for 44% of the occupation. It is also the meat that occupies more space in Alimentaria, about 14,000 square meters. And meat products are the most exported products, followed by olive oil, processed fruits and vegetables, and wine. All of them with a wide presence in Alimentaria.
Although vegetable protein is still a small market niche, Alimentaria has paid special attention to the future of food, the Alimentaria Hub. Vegetable products are still a smaller parcel in relation to the total of the food and beverage category, but they are growing at a high rate in countries such as the US, Germany or the United Kingdom. Dairy substitutes, for example, have grown 3.8 times faster since 2017 than dairy in general. The association that brings together the specialized industry, the Plant Based Food Association, ensures that the global turnover of this market segment has grown 54% in three years, to a total of about 7,400 million dollars.
This growth has been quite transversal in all product categories, but especially in milk, meat (vegetable versions with a meat appearance) and sauces. And all this in the midst of a pandemic. According to data from Danone, ‘plant based’ foods are already in 45% of Spanish households and 98% of these consumers of vegetable alternatives regularly consume milk and dairy yogurt. In this plant world, alternatives to dairy products (milk and yogurt) are consolidated as the categories with the greatest weight, growing to 42%, compared to 19% for alternatives to beef.
The plant-based diet is staunchly advocated by champions of social networks, among those who seek and spread a healthier lifestyle and habits, and young people (major consumers of the future). The concern for health and physical well-being is further strengthened by the idea that a diet with more vegetables and fruits is healthier, avoids animal suffering, enhances environmental awareness and is more sustainable.
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But the truth is that the great pending issue is to check if the myths are confirmed in reality. A recent conference organized by the Industrial Robotics Institute (IRI) highlighted that “the myth that foods of plant origin are healthier, with less processed ingredients and with little salt, fat and calories, is not verified in many cases and disappoints consumer expectations”. The new vegetarian products must achieve food sustainability with limited transportation costs and responsible use of land and water, and achieve reasonable prices (something that has not yet been achieved). In an environment marked by the war in Ukraine and growing obstacles to transport, food sovereignty is gaining relevance and this will translate into theory with more weight of local products in the shopping basket.
Hostelco, with 20,000 square meters of exhibition space and 600 exhibitors, aims to be the key to reactivating a sector battered by the pandemic but which shows signs of opening up for investment, something for which a fair is friendly territory. Visitors will see suitable machinery for the modernization of their establishments on display. Around 1,400 accredited professionals such as importers, distributors and purchasing managers of hotel and restaurant chains visit Barcelona to evaluate their investments.