126th Markant Trade Forum - 30 years of Iberiana

At the 126th Markant Trade Forum on 18 and 19 September at the Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre, the focus was on this year's anniversary of Iberiana. To mark the 30th anniversary of the Markant subsidiary, a large stand was once again placed in the centre of the fair, presenting a diverse selection of fruit and vegetables.

Visitors were not only able to experience the freshness and quality of the products up close and convince themselves of their flavour with freshly prepared smoothies, but were also informed about the newly added Iberiana site in Italy.

A total of 362 exhibitors were represented at the exhibition centre, including 18 new exhibitors and 20 start-ups. They were able to network with over 300 retailers and discuss the current promotional offers. A total of around 1,600 visitors from the industry took part in the 126th Markant Retail Forum. This time, exhibitors from the stationery sector (stationery: paper, office supplies and stationery) also took part for the first time, rounding off the back-to-school range perfectly.

INSIGHTS trade forum

The interesting specialist presentations at the beginning of the first day of the fair once again offered a whole range of topics relating to business, politics, technology and sustainability.

Peter Altmaier, former Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, kicked off the event and gave an outlook in his presentation: "Quo vadis Germany? An economic, political and social assessment".

Co-founder of retail.ai GmbH, Prof Dr Peter Gentsch, followed on from this and gave an insight into the benefits of generative AI for the retail industry with his presentation "AI as an innovation and production driver for retail".

Finally, Karsten Schwanke, meteorologist, TV presenter and Grimme Award winner, spoke on the topic of "Climate change - THE challenge for food supply in Germany & Europe" and gave the participants food for thought.

Iberiana-INSIGHTS

In addition, Iberiana gave exclusive specialist presentations for partners from the fruit and vegetable sector: After a welcome from the Managing Director of Iberiana Frucht S. A. / Iberiana Frucht S.r.l. Enrique Clavel, he gave a brief introduction and talked about the 30th anniversary of Iberiana and the new location in Italy, among other things.

Niklas Bergmann, Consultant at Consumer Panel Services GfK, then spoke on the topic "Will the price stay hot? - Current consumer behaviour & trends in the overall FMCG market and in fruit & vegetables" and gave an initial outlook on the figures and trends for the first half of 2024. Joaquín Hermoso, Chief Strategy Officer at AGR Food Marketing, followed on from this and presented various approaches in his presentation "Ways to differentiate and increase fruit consumption".

Spanish fiesta

The first day of the trade fair was brought to a fitting close with the evening event Handelsforum NIGHT under the motto "Viva España".

The garden hall of the Karlsruhe Congress Centre was transformed into a Spanish village and offered plenty of Spanish delicacies such as tapas, paella and sangria to mark the Iberiana anniversary.

Start-up arena

One arena, 10 start-ups, 30 pitches: on both days of the trade fair, there were once again plenty of exciting pitches to marvel at in the voilà! start-up arena! A total of 10 innovative start-up teams presented their innovative products to Markant's retail partners and many other interested parties.

On the second day, the most striking start-up and other winners were chosen at the awards ceremony: the winner of an article in ONE Markant magazine and a free exhibition stand at the 127th Markant Retail Forum was the company K-Group GmbH, which also won over the three retailers K+K, Kaes and Tegut with its instant curry sauces.

In addition, the four start-ups Vegan Fisherman, Chipzz, BeFlexx and Bebisko also won retailer meetings with Markant retail partners.