SIAL China, Asia’s largest food innovation exhibition, concluded recently recording a further increase in the level of internationality on both the exhibitor and visitor side. Altogether, 2,942 exhibitors (+ 7.6% vs 2015) from 67 countries all over the world and 30 provinces in China presented their latest products and food trends, which attracted over 76,986 visits (+25.6% vs 2015). This year’s show took place on 126,500 sq m of exhibition space.
The opening ceremony
A delegation of ministers (Czech, Belarus, Poland and Russia), ambassadors, consuls and trade officers participated in the opening ceremony of the show.
Most of all the pavilions were represented. China, with Director of China Commerce Development Center, chairman of Gansu Commission of CCPIT, vice-governor of the province of Heilongjiang, general manager of China Packaging and Food Machinery Co. Ltd, deputy director-general of department of commerce of Shandong province, vice-chairman of General Chamber of Commerce of China, deputy secretary-general of China Association of Aquatic Circulation and Processing, secretary- general of cold chain logistics specialist committee.
The guest country of honour - Poland, was represented by ministry of agriculture and rural development of the Republic of Poland and ambassador of embassy of Poland. Other representatives included minister of agriculture of the Czech Republic, minister of agriculture and food of the republic of Belarus, both minister and deputy minister of agriculture of the Russian Federation, vice minister of agriculture Lithuania; governors and vice-governor from Argentina Provinces; and ambassadors and consul generals of Costa Rica, Czech, Poland, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Tunisia, Uruguay, Argentina, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, and Ukraine.
Poland - Guest Country of Honour
Prior to Poland’s participation in 2016, Poland pavilion has always been working closely with SIAL China to boost the Polish-Sino food and agricultural trade for years. In 2016, Poland pavilion joined as guest country of honour and showcased a strong representation of good-tasting Polish food and drinks.
Gansu - Guest Province of Honour
With Gansu’s halal foods, aquatic products and other organic foods in hall E4 and its wines in hall W5, Gansu provincial pavilion came to the show as the guest province of honour.
Discover the key trends to inspire Asia’s food business with SIAL CHINA’s events
SIAL Innovation
SIAL Innovation took off its veil on day 1. Some 151 innovative products were selected by an independent jury, of which 10 were further rated as the finalist products for their contributions to innovate pleasure, health, physical, convenience and ethics for food product. These 10 products all touched on development that are important to Asian food industry.
This year the Gold Award went to Isoline Trade, S.R.O. from Czech for its Trojka drink; the Silver Award was awarded to Egnis Inc. from Korea for its Lab Nosh; the Bronze Award went to Just Water International Ltd from New Zealand for its Elite Manuka Honey Water!
La Cuisine – 3rd edition 2016 China International Top Chefs Invitational Competition by SIAL
La Cuisine was endorsed by World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS) for its third year and organised 8 teams from Austria, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Dalian to compete for the champion. Each team consisted of three highly-skilled chefs and was required to complete themed dishes on-site. After two rounds of multiple themes such as “health” and “organic,” the Dalian team topped all the other contestants and won the honour of “Top Chef” with great acclaim.
Meanwhile, Poland presented cooking demonstrations with quality food and ingredients at La Cuisine.
Retail & Hospitality Forum
In partnership with Sinmei, the 5th edition of Retail & Hospitality Forum sparked with the intuitive insights and accurate analyses shared by star speakers. The world’s largest online and mobile marketplace Alibaba, world leading consumer product company Suntory Brewery, consultants and experts from The United Nations Office for Project Services and InterChina Consulting, Redfern Associates and many more delivered speeches on the latest hot topics including food sustainability, import and export policy, food innovation, HoReCa and market trends..
World Tour
In the 2016 edition, World Tour helped all the exhibitors and visitors to understand the specific characteristics of the food market by geographic area. Some 28 billboards were displayed featuring best-selling products and the information to define the retail strategies, from Australia to Canada, from Brazil to Russia, the United States, India and China. In addition, a list of top 10 retailers and top five retail trends were also displayed to identify consumption drivers.
Wine Innovation Forum
This event became the spotlight in the wine sector. Tim Wildman MW came in as the keynote speaker and led a star studded line-up including Kenichi Ohashi MW, sommelier Nikhil Agarwal and many more. Some 15 sessions were held and gathered 900 people on-site. Moreover, the 2016 edition brought more wines from the emerging New World such as Japan, India and Russia with a blend of maturity and freshness.
Best Buy China Competition
In partnership with Wine100 - one of the most professional and influential wine rating agencies in China, Best Buy China Competition brought an effective platform to showcase exhibitors’ star products.
A panel of eight judges including: trade buyers, wine educators and MW had performed a blind tasting of the wines & spirits submitted by exhibitors. The jury was presided by Tim Wildman MW. This year, 40 exhibitors submitted their wines for Best Buy China Competition. Some 10 Best Buy, 7 Honour Awards were awarded.
Master Classes
As a central place for wine experts and wine lovers to converge together, Master Classes are held with dedicated tasting room to cultivate wine lovers’ tastes for premium wines. Presented by EaseScents, DSW and so forth, eight tasting and education sessions were conducted with many intriguing topics such as “Yellow Wine Lecture – Pagoda Brand Handcraft Wine,” “New era of the Imported Wine,” “Development of Chinese Wine” and many more. Around 500 professionals participated in the event and interacted with the masters during three days.
The 2016 World Tea Brewers Cup, China National Competition
Endorsed by Café Culture and Australasian Specialty Tea Association (AASTA), the event honoured traditions with brewing skills and carry on tea innovations by organising competitions. For the second edition and after three days contest, Wei Chuwei the second prize winner of last edition returned in
2016. He outperformed all the other 31 contestants. Fang Zhenzhen won the second prize and Shen Guohui ranked the third.
Chocolate World
The 5th edition of Chocolate World saw seven sessions successfully held within three days. The former engaged top dessert chefs from five five-star hotels including Renaissance Beijing, Crowne Plaza Park View Wuzhou, The Opposite House and many more. Zhou Liqun from Beijing Hospitality Institute won Best Performance. Du Huiping, an amateur dessert lover, was awarded Best Creativity whilst Honorary Award went to Zheng Tao from Renaissance Beijing. Li Dong from The Opposite House was the winner of Best Popularity.
Seafood Fest’
The Fourth edition of Seafood Fest’ – Right Seafood Right Wine was held together by China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA) and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). With sessions dedicated to introduce the “right seafood” associate with “right wines,” Seafood Fest’s produced palatal pleasures with gourmet food products. In addition, Cappmy & MSC jointly hosted an event themed "MSC sustainable selection--trace to the source of seafood to the fishery" promoting sustainable seafood such as GFC Rock Lobster, a representative seafood from western Australia and other seafood from Zhangzidao Group, Dalian Rich Seafood Co. Ltd, Dalian Fishing Beauty Foodstuff Co. Ltd. MSC introduces the aim and market development of international sustainable seafood.
China Inspection & Quarantine Forum - One Line, One Standard, One Quality
The show inaugurated its collaboration with Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau (Shanghai CIQ) to organise a dedicated panel discussing the matter of food producers supplying quality food that meets HACCP international standards for both domestic and overseas markets. As a unique opportunity to engage with Shanghai CIQ where both private and public sector representatives came together to form the panel. The forum became the spotlight that attracted over 250 people.
After SIAL Party
The party returned to cruise along the Huang Pu River. With a combination of selected wines, gourmet food and rivera view, over 400 VIP exhibitors and VIP buyers celebrated the success of the show. In addition, the awarding ceremony of SIAL – Best Buy China Competition also came on board. Riding the wave of big data, the show offered match-making system that effectively helped exhibitors and visitors to identify each other’s needs. There were in total 30,685 attempts of booking match-making meetings involving 2,702 exhibitors and 8,520 visitors in 2016. In the end, 2,019 meetings were successfully booked online.
