RIMINI, Italy – 208,472 trade visitors (+3.5%), with a large increase in foreign attendees, up to 41,827 (+29%) from 170 countries. With these truly excellent figures another great edition (the 38th) ended Wednesday at Fiera di Rimini of the SIGEP international confectionery expo, this year held simultaneously with AB TECH EXPO, dedicated to artisan bakery.
2017 confirmed that SIGEP, organized by IEG Italian Exhibition Group SpA, the company founded with the merger of Rimini Fiera and Fiera di Vicenza, is one of the world’s great expos, which play the role of absolute reference points in the respective trades.
SIGEP highlights the success of closely linked product chains (sensational this year’s growth of the expo area dedicated to coffee, now part of the exhibition’s official denomination) and a format that combines research, technology, products and training, addressing an international public with the added value of Italian-made products.
1,250 companies were involved and occupied 118,000 sq.m. of exhibit space, with an increase of 5,000 sq.m., the first stage in the extension of the expo centre which will result in another 11,000 sq.m. for the 2018 edition of SIGEP, being held from 20th to 24th January.
Over 800 events were organized by Rimini Fiera and the companies, followed by trade visitors extremely interested in discovering new techniques and product ideas. 703 Italian and foreign journalists and bloggers were accredited, resulting in over 175,000 million media contacts.
IEG president Lorenzo Cagnoni comments, “SIGEP is the best response an expo can give to the market and the area. It was an extraordinary edition, confirming that the decision to invest in leading expos is a winner.
IEG will continue with this strategy and, along with all the institutional bodies that facilitate international relations, will ensure the market new frontiers of growth.
A consideration regarding the area: it is important that traders’ satisfaction is so widespread and this is further proof of the powerful driving force these expos provide, particularly in a period that is still rather complicated.”
General manager Corrado Facco states, “For IEG, 2017 took off under the banner of top-grade Italian-made products, highlighting two excellent sectors of our economy, such as artisan confectionery and jewellery.
With SIGEP and VICENZAORO January we attracted attention to the highest profiles of quality and foreign development, decisive factors for the expansion of all Italian and international enterprises.
SIGEP closed with record-breaking figures, but the real barometer of the 2017 edition of this exhibition – which is a professional appointment nobody in the world can afford to miss – is the high degree of satisfaction and confidence that exhibiting companies confirmed with us, acknowledging the great work carried out in terms of promotion and organization.
The culminating events of the 2017 program: the Junior World Pastry Championship (won by Japan), the German Challenge (with 62 German gelato makers competing for 9 places in the Berlin date of the Gelato World Tour), the finals of Bread in The City (won by Italy), The Ultimate Chococake Award dedicated to the chocolate work professionals and the Italian barista championships, with the only national appointment with the seven competitions valid for the international World Coffee Events circuit.
