Roisin O’Sullivan, Market Specialist, Bord Bia Madrid - The Irish Food Board
Diversified Communications announced in late September that Seafood Expo Global, the largest seafood fair in the world, would be moving to Barcelona, Spain, starting with the trade show’s 2021 edition. The organizers had monitored exhibitor and attendee satisfaction for the Brussels location over the past number of years and poor feedback coupled with the growth of the show year on year, meant that Brussels’ limited infrastructure, facilities and amenities simply weren’t going to be able to support such a gigantic show going forward.
Barcelona was selected as the new host city given it’s a main international destination with vast experience dealing with large influxes of foreign guests both tourist and business orientated. It has great facilities, numerous hotel and restaurant options and the Fira de Barcelona exhibition centre is a modern and innovative venue.
Spain is also home to one of the largest Frozen Seafood Shows in Europe, Conxemar based in Vigo, Galicia. The 2019 edition, held earlier this month closed with a total of 37,000 visitors from 108 countries. The total number of exhibitors this year reached 749, seven more than last year with up to 70 companies remaining on the waiting list, reinforcing the popularity and importance of the show for the Iberian seafood sector.
Driven by the growing popularity of the Conxemar show, and the recent pressure to compete after Seafood Expo global´s announcement of its pending move to Barcelona, The Xunta de Galicia (Galicia’s local government board) released a statement to say that they were committed to expedite the expansion of the Conxemar IFEVI exhibition grounds by 5,000 square meters and calculated an investment of 4 million euros into this project prior to the 2020 edition.
Spain is the second largest market for Irish seafood exports which were valued at 73€ million in 2018 so what better country to host two of the most important trade shows in the Seafood sector. Bord Bia Madrid will be on hand to assist all Irish Seafood exporters during these exciting times ahead.