SIAL China 2021, one of the top three food and beverage professional showcase worldwide and an annual world food and beverage industry chain conference was held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC) on May 18, 2021. Featuring an exhibition area of 180,000 square meters, the event brought together more than 4,500 exhibitors from the four corners of the earth to showcase over 300,000 products. 38 international exhibition delegations from France, Argentina, Ireland, Estonia, Brazil, Belgium, Poland, Canada and other countries were present at the event, which was attended by more than 80 representatives from embassies and consulates of various countries.

SIAL China continues to highlight its cross-border appeal by continuously unlocking its four core values: 1) a large global platform, 2) the huge Chinese market, 3) digital and intelligent empowerment and 4) identity as a new ideological pacesetter. At the same time, the continuous re-integration of resources on all fronts has further broadened domestic and foreign publicity channels and has enriched concurrent face-to-face summits and activities. SIAL China is now stepping up its exhibitions’ promotion and business matchmaking through multi-pronged efforts to build itself into a global food and beverage business and trade platform.

As one of the world’s leading event organisers, the Comexposium Group is headquartered in Paris, France, and is dedicated to the global food and beverage market based in Europe. As the world’s No. 1 brand of professional food and beverage exhibitions, the SIAL Network on food and beverage products, annually held in Shanghai, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, Jakarta and other places around the world, have established themselves as an important platform for food and beverage companies worldwide to deliver their voices and demonstrate their own value. With the SIAL Network of Comexposium Group and a strong edge of its deep dedication to China for 22 years, SIAL China has brought together approximately 40,000 global exhibitors and over 1 million global professionals and remains positive in spite of the harsh economic environment, making it a trading platform where food and beverage from all over the world converges.

Professional and High-Quality Summits and Forums Bring Together Big Names, Providing Insights into the Future of the Industry

In conjunction with the exhibition, the three-day SIAL China 2021 also featured 10 major theme forums and other activities, working with leading global leaders in the food and beverage industry and over 120,000 professionals to analyze the development trends of the global food and beverage industry chain through more than 20 core topics. This propelled the industry to rethink the entire chain and facilitated the global development of China’s food and beverage industry.

The 10 major forums included the New Retail Summit, Global Dairy Forum, International Meat Conference, Food Supply Chain Forum, Food & Beverage Investment Summit, E-Commerce Merchants Conference, China Catering Forum, Nutrition and Health Food Forum, Import Food Summit and IP Authorization Forum.

In tandem with the forums, there was also a number of professional events and themed competitions including Chinese Cuisine Cooking Competition, La Cuisine, 21 Healthy Dishes, Coffee Event and Seafood Fest.

A Record International Exhibition Area in Light of the EU’s Return

The European Union (EU) returned and served as the guest of honor of this year’s event after it did the same in 2018, allowing the international exhibition area to boast figures three times greater than those of last year. A space specifically for exhibiting China-EU Agreement on Geographical Indications products provided a forum for the first wave of said products to be put on display. This move facilitates further trade ties between China and the EU and is expected to thereby contribute to the integrated development of the global food and beverage industry.

For this edition, SIAL China featured seven major sectors and themes, including snacks, comprehensive imports, meats and frozen foods, convenience products and grains, oils and seasonings, green agricultural products, premium drinks and dairy items and functional health foods to suit the more personalized needs of global exhibitors. Not only did these get ringing endorsements from 38 international exhibition delegations; they also won the high affirmation of professional domestic organizations, including the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association, the Department of Commerce of Shandong Province, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Department of Commerce of Jilin Province, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (Heilongjiang and Gansu Committees), the Changchun Municipal Bureau of Commerce, the Ningbo Free Trade Zone, the Weihai Chamber of Commerce for Imported Products, the High-Tech Industry Development Zone in Lincang (Yunnan), the Xiamen Food Industry Association, the Dongguan Food Association, the Jinjiang Food Trade Association and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), all of which sent delegations of their own.

These professional organizations launched wide cross-sections of product recommendation activities at the exhibition site. Notable among these was the related activities organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Gansu Committee and the Lanzhou Municipal People’s Government as well as the Zhoushan Aquatic Products Presentation hosted by the Zhoushan Bureau of Commerce. With SIAL China, an international food and beverage exhibition platform of world-leading French-based exhibition producer Groupe Exposium, guests such as the procurement representatives from suppliers, dealers, e-commerce platforms, supermarkets and the food & beverage sector were invited to drive the integration of domestic and foreign trade of local featured products.

Broadened Channels Advance Globalization of China’s Food and Beverage Industry 

Breaking new ground for decades, SIAL China continues to intensify its efforts to underpin food and beverage marketing channels. This year, it invited a total of 123,000 professionals from all over the world, including global e-commerce platforms represented by Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Suning.com, Amazon and Meituan; domestic and foreign retailers fronted by Yonghui Superstores, Carrefour, Wal-Mart, China Resources Vanguard, Auchan, Wumart and Hualian; cold-chain logistics businesses exemplified by Air China Cargo; enterprises like Yum! Brands, Haidilao, Xiabu Xiabu, Quanjincheng, and Ziguanyuan from the catering service industry; and domestic food wholesale markets led by the Wuxi Tianpeng Food Market, Zhejiang Modern United Food Market, Shanghai Jiayong Nanbei Dry Goods Market and Hunan Gaoqiao Market.

The exhibitors leveraged their massive global resources and information accumulated by SIAL China in its 22 years of operation to tap the food and beverage industry with great potential, reaching a variety of business and trade agreements on site, with cooperation signing ceremonies between a multitude of businesses and organizations from home and abroad taking place on May 18 alone, two prime examples of these being with the Uruguayan Embassy to China and Huayuan International Land Port (Datong) Group.

First SIAL China 2021 White Paper Provides Insights into New Trends of the Food Market

This year, SIAL China released its first White Paper on New Consumption Growth of Food and Beverage 2021, in collaboration with SIAL Paris, XTC, Kantar, Kantar China, the Committee of Health Care Consultation (China Health Care Association) and iResearch. From multiple dimensions, it took a deep dive into the characteristics of the times, dietary preferences, consumer demand, main players in the consumer market, consumption scenarios, consumer categories and others in many countries around the world, providing industry practitioners with extremely valuable information.

Focus on Future Trends to Power Industry Innovation and Development

Today, innovation has been the driving force for the development of the food and beverage industry. A concurrent event, SIAL Innovation, is the most professional annual food and beverage competition offered around the globe and is regarded by the industry as a bellwether that reflects the very latest in technical innovation as far as food development is concerned. In its 17th year, the occasion received more than 300 entries from all over the world. The winners of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards were announced on May 18, 2021.

Furthermore, SIAL China this year also continued its innovative themed tour routes (children’s, healthy and convenience foods), which created quite the stir previously, as well as its business negotiation mode, livestreaming options and more. The practice of strengthening exhibition services through an internet-oriented mode of thinking and emphasizing the influence of the overall event has earned, yet again, critical acclaim. In terms of business negotiations, with SIAL China’s online platform and Match Me, online and offline barriers were broken down; digital and intelligent approaches were taken to coordinate the allocation of resources from different sectors; and big data, artificial intelligence and other methods were leveraged to set up a bridge connecting visitors and exhibitors for effective, direct communication. Buyers who registered for the exhibition stayed up to date with exhibitor and product information, made online appointments and zeroed in on their favorite suppliers and products in advance, contributing to their efficient and targeted visits on site. At the same time, four-way connections among exhibitors, group organizations, major buyers and visitors were met to the fullest extent possible.

SIAL China has done much to embrace the times and empower the platform with Internet Thinking and the digital and intelligent process, greatly enhancing the international clout of brands. In the meantime, the event will take a more important step forward — SIAL China South, slated for October 28–30 in Shenzhen this year. This marks a great evolution of SIAL China’s deep dedication to the Chinese market and is also a further extension of the global footprint of the SIAL Network. SIAL China will work and connect more closely with the mother show in France as well as the global network to enhance the global competitiveness of food and beverage companies worldwide. By closely following the policies for the new development landscape featuring dual circulation and mutual promotion at home and abroad, it also provides the most valuable international trade platform for the local Chinese businesses and buyers through international professional exhibition services, and to provide the best exhibition experience for exhibitors and visitors.