MILAN, Italy – The alliance between food and technology, which has always been the beating heart of Host is back in the spotlight, and matters more now than ever before. That much is clear from the figures for the edition that will be opening its doors in less than two months’ time (from 23 to 27 October) at Fieramilano Rho.
The world’s leading fair for the Ho.Re.Ca., food service, retail, and hotel sectors has already attracted 1,800 exhibitors and forecasts suggest that the final number will be in excess of 1,900, 38% of them coming from abroad.
And they will be ready to show off their latest product, process and service ideas in 14 halls – two more than in the previous edition, which is a growth of 12% in the amount of floor space covered.
The exhibitors will be divided into three macro areas: Professional Catering with Bread, Pizza and Pasta; Coffee and Tea with SIC, the International Coffee, Bar Equipment and Vending Machines Fair plus Ice Cream and Pastry; finally Furnishings and Tableware.
Out in front at the top of the table of the five best represented countries are the traditionally strong markets of Germany (+7.69%) and France (+22.22%), while Spain is making a big comeback (+12.7%) and more firms will also be coming from the USA (+22%), one reason for this being the fact that HostMilano has now been included by the Commercial Service of the US Department of Commerce in the exclusive list of international events at which the United States is present with its own official stand. The fifth top foreign presence is Switzerland (+25%).
The 1,500 buyers will be coming from a total of 60 countries from all five continents, with numerous delegations from the USA, China, Russia and India.
In addition, as part of the Export South project, HostMilano will be supporting the Foreign Trade Institute Agency with an incoming mission of around 90 top buyers from a number of dynamic areas, namely Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark), North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia), central and Eastern Europe (Germany, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary), the USA, Australia and Brazil. Encounters between firms will be facilitated by the Expo Matching Program platform, the system through which Fiera Milano organised 38,400 targeted meetings at the last edition.
At least 135,000 professional visitors from all over the world are expected, as well as hundreds of journalists with international media accreditations.
