IPACK-IMA 2015 is going to take place in conjunction with the EXPO 2015 *. The change in schedule from the traditional March dates to May 19-23 is bound the create the perfect synergy between the mainstays of the exhibition, leader in the packaging, processing and food safety industries, and the Expo, drawing worldwide interest towards Milan with "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life".

IPACK-IMA 2015 will extend over the entire south and east areas of the Fiera Milano exhibition center, right next to the entrance to the EXPO area and conveniently connected to the city through the underground network.

Topping off the ensemble into a single, one-of-a-kind, global event, Tuttofood, the global professional exhibition dedicated to the agro-food industry organized by Fieramilano will also be staged in conjunction with IPACK-IMA. Tuttofood will take up the west area of the exhibition complex.

The new schedule ensures worldwide resonance for Ipack-Ima by placing it on the unique, high-visibility stage of the EXPO. It also represents the acknowledgement of the increasingly crucial role the exhibition plays in current issues of utmost importance such as food safety and food security, with the recognition of the United Nations’ food agencies, UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) and WFP (World Food Programme).

In perfect concert with the main EXPO theme, the activities staged by the packaging industry in connection to food-related issues, represent a key contribution to progress and the creation of a better, fairer world. This can be accomplished by employing top technology and expertise in packaging and agro-industrial processing, with particular reference to grain based food.

IPACK-IMA’s commitment all along the path leading up to the EXPO 2015 features new initiatives year after year. As part of the activities developed in harness with the United Nations’ food agencies, this year Milan will be the stage for the "Ipack-Ima days. Technology for food safety". Next year IPACK-IMA will present its 2012 edition presided by a food industry heavyweight such as Paolo Barilla; the exhibition will host the International Forum for African Countries. The next two years will be marked by a string of events dealing with  Food Safety and Food Security taking place in Asia and Africa in 2013 and in Latin America in 2014.

IPACK-IMA is at the forefront also in recycling and packaging’s second life, with a work plan drawn in cooperation with Conai (National Packaging Consortium). These issues - strongly connected to environmental sustainability and the future of the planet - will be discussed this year during an event organized in cooperation with Conai and financial newspaper Sole24Ore, and during IPACK-IMA 2012 with the event "Planning the Future. Packaging is quality of life". These events will be also followed by more initiatives in 2013 and 2014 in view of the upcoming EXPO 2015.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The right air for the future of hotels can be breathed at SIA GUEST. The International Hospitality Exhibition will be held this year at Rimini Fiera from Saturday 26^th to Tuesday 29^th November. The 61^st edition, with the patronage of Federalberghi and AIPI Italian Association of Interior Designers, aims at improving the performance of 2010, which chalked up 35,265 visitors (a 3.1% increase) and had a 34% rise in foreign visitors, as well as multiplying business opportunities, thanks to wide participation by top Italian and foreign buyers.

The exhibition area will occupy the entire west wing of the expo centre. Eight halls, as in 2010, to which admittance will be through the South and West entrances, with proposals from the leading firms in the “Decor & contract”, “Bathrooms, Wellness & Ceramics”, “SIA Trend”, “Interdecò”, “Supplies for the hotel trade”, “Equipment & Systems for Food Service” and “Technology & Service” sectors.

SIA GUEST is an expo targeting the concrete nature of business and a useful experience for discovering the trends that the hospitality enterprise network offers the market. As well as the showcase of excellent Italian-made products, an entire hall, SIA Trend, is dedicated to the utmost excellence in innovation, in which a business area and cultural exhibition are combined, under the banner of experimentation for hotels and collective venues.

As far as contents are concerned, in the expo area SIA GUEST 2011 will present the formula of the combination of product areas and appointments that highlight the individual sectors. Each hall will therefore be completed by thematic events. The expo will further increase training events, in order to highlight the entire professional chain that is the key player in hotels.

At this stage, SIA GUEST 2011 team is staging promotion operations aimed at the activity of involving selected qualified buyer from Germany, Great Britain, Turkey, France and Eastern Europe (Poland, Rumania, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Russia).

On the international relations front, the collaboration has been renewed with the SBID (Society of British Interior Design), which represents approximately 800 British design studios and which will take part in SIA GUEST to meet and network with the Italian market.

Whereas, after the agreement signed during the previous edition, at SIA GUEST 2011 the EHMA (European Hotel Managers Association) will stage the autumn meeting of the Italian Chapter of this association, whose member are 450 managers of 5-star and luxury hotels in 28 European nations,  90 of which are in Italy. EHMA members represent 350 hotels with 90,000 rooms and 70,000 employees, which generate an estimated turnover of 6 billion euros. Founded in Rome in 1974, the EHMA is an élite Association of high-level hotel managers constantly aim at improving their professionalism and that of their staff, in order to maintain and improve the services they provide their clientele.

www.siarimini.com

The Gelato World Cup will be celebrating its fifth appointment at Sigep in Rimini – Italy from 21 - 24 January 2012 with lots of major new features.

A new professional figure will be joining the group of 12 teams from 5 different continents:  a haute-cuisine  chef, “thus closes the circle” of cultural contamination between haute-cuisine genres and bolsters the other 4 team members - the Team Manager, a member of the international panel of judges, the gelato maker Captain,  the confectioner-chocolate maker and the ice sculptor.

The Gelato World Cup, a two-year event, is designed according to principles of integrity, professionalism and equity with strong focus on new markets. It could hardly have been staged anywhere else but Italy, cradle of the “sublime product”, during SIGEP, since 1979 the world’s major showcase in the sector and a must event for artisan gelato makers, confectioners, chocolate makers and bakers from all over the world.

From the 5 continents for the occasion, 60 competitors from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Morocco, Spain, United States of America, Switzerland and Turkey will be taking part during the 4 days of the event, as already said, from 21 - 24 January 2012.

Their creations, on the theme “The fruits of the Land and Sea”, will be judged by a technical panel consisting of 12 Team Managers, one for each team, headed by Panel Chairman, Mauro Petrini, with the assistance of the Honorary Panel Chairman 2012, Jean-Claude David, captain of the French team that won the fourth edition (2010). Enforcing competition rules will be the Commissioners, Sergio Dondoli and Sergio Colalucci

The Gelato World Cup is a unique chance for confrontation and a rewarding experience for all those professionals who, in the future, will help spread the fame of traditional Italian artisan gelato worldwide.

www.sigep.it

While being present as guest of honor at GastroPan 2011 trade fair Romania, Peter Becker, the president of the International Union of Bakers (UIB) - an organization uniting the bakery industry associations in 35 countries across the globe, gave an interview in which he spoke about the world wide problems in the bakery industry and also about the great opportunities that specialized trade fairs can give to producers and suppliers. Find out Peter Becker’s opinion about GastroPan exhibition.

As a specialist with a comprehensive vision of the global bakery industry, how can you generally describe the current situation in the field, internationally?

I think that on the one hand we are lucky because the bread is a vital, healthy and very cheap product. On the other hand, we have problems due to increased demand for flour and grain, which led to massive price increases. Under these conditions, especially in the poor countries, it will become very difficult for bakeries to make quality bread at a price that covers production costs.

Do you think that prices will continue to grow?

I think we must admit that there will be price increases in the whole food industry, especially for bread, because we have different problems. We have changes in agriculture, given that many farmers switching their wheat crops from bread grain to bio-fuel grain. As a result, we have problems with the stocks. We have a growing demand for grains and this is a problem that will lead to price increases in general.

What is your opinion, after visiting GastroPan exhibition, about Romania's efforts to develop its bakery industry?

I am very surprised by the success of this exhibition. I’ve been to Romania six years ago, in Bucharest, and there was no dedicated specialized exhibition organized at that time. Of course, I can not compare this event with the IBA exhibition, which we organize in Germany and is the most important bakery trade fair in the world. But comparing this event with other international exhibitions in Eastern Europe, South America or even Asia, I think you are a good way. The fact that this fair has grown from year to year, from 50 to 90 exhibitors, shows an appetite for investments that will help in the development of the bakery sector in Romania.

Slow Fish 2011 Opened in Genoa by European
Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki
and Slow Food President Carlo Petrini

The fifth edition of Slow Food’s celebration of sustainable fishing opened today in Genoa.
 
The event was officially inaugurated on Friday May 27 by Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries; Carlo Petrini, President of Slow Food; Claudio Burlando, President of the Liguria Regional Authority; Pierluigi Vinai, Vice-President of the Fondazione Carige and Silvio Greco, President of the Slow Fish Scientific Committee.
 
Slow Fish 2011 runs from May 27 to 30 at the Genoa Fiera, with a special focus this year on the small-scale fishers whose livelihood is threatened by industrial fishing and whose activities help protect rather than devastate the marine environment.
 
A press conference with Maria Damanaki was held prior to the official inauguration. She was introduced by Silvio Greco, who briefly sketched out the complexity of the Mediterranean situation; the sea is bordered by many different EU and non-EU countries, each with its own rules and regulations. In the North Sea, he said, fish quantities are high but the number of fish species was low (only 20 fishable species), while in contrast the Mediterranean has small quantities of many fishable species (300).
 
Damanaki agreed that the situation is very difficult: fish resources are depleted and fish contains dangerous pollutants, is sometimes sold under false labels and huge amounts are thrown overboard after being caught by mistake. Her answer: “We can probably change the way we eat, but we definitely have to change the way we fish.”
 
She outlined some of the issues with current legislation and the Common Fisheries Policy, which she said was too complex, hard to implement and focused on short-term economic interests, which often prevail over environmental concerns. She said the planned CFP reform would turn this around, with decentralization and sustainability at the heart of her proposals. “With the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, I am hoping to introduce a new way of fishing that does not prevent fish from reproducing and growing. A new way of fishing that respects sensitive areas like spawning grounds or sensitive habitats and that spares non-target species such as seabirds, cetaceans and sharks. A new way of fishing that phases out wasteful practices such as throwing unwanted catches overboard.” She said she was pushing for an ecosystem approach to fisheries, a new system that should adapt to each region’s heritage, tradition and know-how.
 
She moved on to talk about a major threat to these conservation efforts: illegal fishing. “Harvesting stocks unsustainably disrupts ecosystems and destroys habitats, but it’s not just a crime against the environment. It also distorts markets, creates unfair competition and erodes consumer confidence.” She described new methods and technologies being used by the EU to crack down on illegal fishing, like a points system similar to the one used for driving licenses, and traceability tools based on genetics, genomics and forensic techniques.
 
Given the health benefits of eating fish and its convenience (“fish is quick and easy to cook—for me it’s the only healthy and acceptable form of fast food!”), she urged people to keep eating fish as long as it comes from sustainable sources. She said that stocks can produce more if fished sustainably, and that good results were already been seen from the EU’s efforts: “Today, 37% of the stocks we have studied are being fished at sustainable levels. Only last year this figure was 28%. According to scientists, there are 11 stocks that we should stop fishing altogether. Last year there were 14.”
 
She spoke about her dual responsibility, to ensure that Europeans get as much seafood as they need and that natural resources are not exploited, but used sustainably. She was positive about the chances for success, citing a UK petition against bycatch with almost a million signatures. She said she expected opposition from fishing industry interests and some political levels, and so asked for support to help convince national governments, minsters and members of the European Parliament to vote for her proposals.
 
In response to questions from journalists, she talked about the importance of education and funding projects that teach people about good behavior, that develop tourism and that provide fisherman with another way to make money, like a new project recently launched in Nice where French fishers are paid to go out on their boats and collect recyclable plastic and other garbage from the sea when they are not fishing. On the controversial issue of bluefin tuna stocks, she talked about an improved situation from last year, when she closed the fisheries early, and described measures being taken by the EU to prevent uncontrolled Libyan fishing of the threatened stocks.
 
At the official inauguration shortly after the press conference, Carlo Petrini thanked the commissioner and underlined the importance of her presence at Slow Fish. He turned the spotlight onto small-scale fishers, who he said “were not sufficiently protected from this environmental disaster that condemns them to a slow extinction.”
 
“These years are strategic for EU food policy,” he said, talking about how Slow Food was in harmony with a new food policy strategy that includes respect for the health of the environment, social justice in the protection of small fishing and farming communities and the abandonment of an unsustainable development model based only on consumption and waste.
 
These small communities, he said, cannot be supported only by the price of commodities, but must be supported by the EU. “The whole community must support the work these farmers and fishers do for the ecosystem,” he said. Small fishers protect their local area, as well as our historical memory, tourism and culture. “Reducing food to a commodity is our biggest mistake,” he said. “We have to recognize the difference between price and value.”

Slow Fish Press Office

        Slow Food: Paola Nano, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.