Press Release

KOELNMESSE JOINS THE GERMAN ASSOCIATION FOR ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF PROTEIN (BALPRO)

Anuga and Anuga FoodTec increase their commitment for sustainable food +++ Promotion of alternative sources of protein under focus +++ New event and content formats support a future-oriented food industry

Koelnmesse GmbH, organiser of the leading global trade fairs in the food section, Anuga, and in the food technology section, Anuga FoodTec, has joined the German Association for Alternative Sources of Protein (BALPro). With this step Anuga and Anuga FoodTec are actively asserting themselves for the promotion and further development of alternative sources of protein and are pushing the sustainable transformation of the food industry forward. Through their membership in BALPro, Anuga and Anuga FoodTec are increasing their support for companies and players, who aim to shape the future of food with innovative concepts.

Impulses for the food transformation
As the leading global trade fairs in the food industry, Anuga and Anuga FoodTec are important platforms for innovations and sustainable developments in the food and beverages section as well as in the food technology section. Alternative sources of protein are an integral part of this and show strong growth potential: According to Anuga’s knowledge partner, Innova Market Insights, plant-based proteins dominate this market and have achieved an annual growth rate (CAGR) of plus eleven percent over the past five years, particularly in categories like bakery products, ready-made meals, meat alternatives and snacks. With a CAGR of plus 75 percent insect proteins are also recording high growth rates, whilst cultivated and microbial proteins are also showing a positive development at plus 16 percent.

Promotion of sustainable innovations and products through BALPro membership
Companies present pioneering innovations and sustainable products at Anuga, at Anuga FoodTec the focus lies on the latest technologies for the processing, packaging and storage of food and beverages. As such, both trade fairs offer an ideal platform for future-looking solutions that will support the transition over to sustainable food. The BALPro membership additionally underpins the approach of these two trade fairs, because it promotes the exchange between players from the fields of science, business and politics and the society and thus sets impulses for a future-oriented food industry.

“The BALPro membership opens up a wide-ranging network to Koelnmesse, which enables us to actively push sustainable innovations forward. The cooperation strengthens the role of Koelnmesse as an influential trendsetter in an increasingly sustainability-oriented food industry. We consider it to be our task to support companies and important industry players in setting new, resource-saving standards across the entire value chain of the production and packaging of food and beverages,” Oliver Frese, COO of Koelnmesse, emphasised.

“Together with BALPro, as leading platforms, Anuga and Anuga FoodTec set new benchmarks for the future. Our goal is to promote solutions for a sustainable future and support the food industry with its challenges. By bringing important players together and intensifying the exchange, we create formats that sustainably bring the section of alternative proteins forward and actively co-shape the transformation in the food industry,” said Jan Philipp Hartmann, Director Anuga.

“The industry is still in its infancy and has to reach the next development stage: Products should become better, healthier, cheaper and more sustainable,” said Matthias Schlüter, Director Anuga FoodTec. “To this end, new ingredients and production technologies like precision and biomass fermentation as well as cell cultivation are needed. The progress shown at Anuga FoodTec offers major opportunities in the growing protein market – and the cooperation with BALPro sets further impulses here.”

Fabio Ziemßen, BALPro Board Member, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Koelnmesse as a new member of the association. With its internationally renowned trade fairs, Anuga and Anuga FoodTec, the trade fair organisation offers the interdisciplinary platforms for the development of the industry. Our members not only assert themselves on these platforms, they also use them to inspire partners and interested parties for alternative sources of proteins. Especially in the scope of the two new formats, Anuga Horizon and Anuga Alternatives, our new member demonstrates how important it is to have one’s finger on the pulse of time and actively co-shape the future of the food landscape.”

Commitment of Anuga and Anuga FoodTec for alternative proteins
With Anuga’s top theme for 2025 “Sustainable Growth” and Anuga FoodTec’s top theme in 2024 “Responsibility”, the two trade fairs are underlining the significance of sustainability and responsibility, are pushing growth-oriented innovations forward and promoting ecological and ethical standards in the food industry.
In future these main themes will be further developed:

• Anuga Alternatives trade show: From 2025, Anuga will be offering a separate trade show for alternative proteins like algae, cell-cultivated meat, insects as well as hemp and pea proteins. Accompanying networking events promote the exchange between companies and the fields of science and politics and inspire new cooperations.

• Extensive event and congress programme: With panels and discussions about sustainable productions, new technologies and trends, the event programme at Anuga will be enhanced by innovative formats and platforms like Anuga HORIZON, which promotes the exchange of knowledge in this area. Anuga FoodTec is also already planning new formats on alternative proteins for the coming trade fair in the year 2027. Concrete event highlights on the topic will follow.

• ANUGA HORIZON: New places for new ideas – the ultra-modern Conflex that opened in 2024 will be the venue for the international future forum Anuga HORIZON next year. Visionaries, enablers and investors from all sections of the future food community meet up at the event to develop new business models that both mankind and the planet benefit from.

• Regular market surveys and webinars: Anuga and Anuga FoodTec publish surveys, market analyses, blog and magazine articles as well as webinars together with knowledge partners like the German Agricultural Society (DLG e.V.), Innova Market Insights and the dfv media group, which among others highlight current developments and challenges of the food industry – including also themes to do with alternative proteins.

Anuga and ANUGA HORIZON are being staged in Cologne from 04.-08.10.2025 and Anuga FoodTec from 23-26.02.2027.

Cologne, November 2024

Press Release

ANUGA 2025: OPTIMISED TRADE FAIR EXPERIENCE THROUGH NEWLY DESIGNED HALL STRUCTURE

Optimised hall structure strengthens synergies of the ten trade shows +++ Improved orientation and shorter routes between segments +++ Anuga Alternatives as a pioneering platform for protein alternatives

The leading global trade fair, Anuga, the No. 1 for Food & Beverage Business, is presenting itself in Cologne from 4 – 8 October 2025 with a newly designed hall structure. Thanks to targeted strategic adjustments, the individual trade shows are more clearly segmented and offer an improved orientation across the product sections. Thematically-related topics – such as Anuga Alternatives and Anuga Organic for example – are moving closer together on the fair grounds, which will create synergies. Dealers benefit from shorter routes.

With its ten trade shows, the largest international trade fair for the global food industry provides a complete market overview of the offer of food and beverages available worldwide. The individual trade shows offer products and services in the segments protein alternatives, bread and bakery products, frozen and convenience foods, dairy products, delicatessen and gourmet items, meat and organic products as well as hot and cold beverages.

An overview of the most important changes
• Hall 1: From 2025, Anuga Fine Food will share Hall 1 with Anuga Alternatives, which is celebrating its premiere in 2025 as the new trade show for plant, insect, algae and fungal proteins as well as cell-cultivated meat.
• Hall 5.2: The former hall for Anuga Meat will become the new centre for Anuga Fine Food, which will be directly connected to Anuga Fine Food in Halls 1 and 10.2 and bundles the “Fine Food” section in the South of the fair grounds.
• Hall 7: The “Processed Meat” section is moving from Hall 5.2 to Hall 7. Anuga Drinks is also located in Hall 7.
• Hall 8: Anuga Hot Beverages will also be located in Hall 8 from 2025 onwards, in the immediate vicinity of Hall 7, where Anuga Drinks is found.
• The former Anuga Out of Home that was located in Hall 7 in 2023, will no longer be a separate trade show in 2025. The products and services will be integrated into the offer of the corresponding segments to promote even better matchmaking.
• In addition to the Anuga taste Innovation Show and the Trend Zone all of the start-ups will be integrated into the “Boulevard of Innovation” (Boulevard North) to ensure better visibility and an improved overview for the trade.

Anuga reacts to the industry developments with a new trade show and hall concept
The introduction of the trade show Anuga Alternatives is one reason for the new design of the hall. This innovation constitutes a strategic further development of Anuga and thematically bundles protein alternatives gained from insects, plants, fungi, algae and cell-cultivated meat in one trade show. With this move, Anuga is reacting to the consumers’ and trade’s worldwide growing demand for alternative protein sources.

According to Anuga’s knowledge partner, Innova Market Insights, F&B products containing insect-based proteins have recorded an annual growth rate of +114% over the past five years. Sports nutrition and cereal products made from alternative protein sources are showing a growth rate of +11% and 32% respectively. Here, insect-based protein is mainly used for sports powders, sports bars as well as for cereal and energy bars.

Cultivated and microbial-based proteins including mycoprotein and non-animal-based whey protein are recording a CAGR of +10%. Algae-based products are growing at a CAGR rate of +17%, whereby kelp, red algae and kelp extract are showing the strongest growth. The new protein sources not only offer ecological advantages, they also open up economic opportunities for the trade and industry.

“The new trade show and the redesigned hall structure reflects Anuga’s claim, as a pioneer of the global food industry, that it adapts in line with the industry’s changing needs. In this way, we are creating more efficient processes, grouping segments together thematically, bundling the meat halls in the North and the Fine Food halls in the South to ensure an optimised trade fair visit. The new hall concept also offers better networking and encourages business transactions,” stated Jan Philipp Hartmann, Director of Anuga.

The new hall plan can be found at Hall plan | Anuga: https://www.anuga.com/trade-fair/anuga/hall-plan/

Cologne, August 2024

Press Release

ANUGA PRESENTS ITS NEW TRADE SHOW ANUGA ALTERNATIVES

Focus lies on alternative proteins and sustainable food +++ Early bird campaign until 30 September 2024 +++ Closely linked to the top theme Sustainable Growth

Anuga, the No. 1 for Food & Beverage Business, is presenting its new trade show Anuga Alternatives. The trade show exclusively concentrates on a wide variety of products from the plant-based protein, insect protein, algae protein, mushroom-based protein and cell-cultivated meat segments. With over 1,400 companies worldwide, including at least 70 in Germany, that offer plant-based alternatives to animal-based products, the new trade show reflects the growing interest and increased variety within the industry. The commitment to alternative proteins ties in closely with the top theme of Anuga, ‘Sustainable Growth’.

“Alternative proteins are not a short-lived trend, but indeed the future of food. A healthy and sustainable supply of proteins will become an essential component for the food requirements of an ever increasing number of consumers. The market for alternative proteins is not only being pushed by the demand of the consumers, but equally by trailblazing, technological innovations. The progress made in processing plant-based sources of protein and finding new sources of protein are of central importance here. At the coming edition of Anuga, especially within the scope of Anuga Alternatives, we will examine these developments in detail,” explained Jan Philipp Hartmann, Director of Anuga.

In the light of the high global interest in sustainable food solutions, Anuga will offer an extensive programme comprising of webinars, workshops and speaker events that focus on alternative proteins and will examine the latest research results and technological breakthroughs. Professionals from science and business circles and environment protection organisations will share their cognitions about the plant-based, fermented and cell-cultivated protein sources.

In addition to the technical and scientific discussion, Anuga Alternatives also focuses on the social aspects of food production, including themes like ethical procurement, the preservation of biodiversity and the socio-economic effects of changing over to plant-based diets.

Overall market for plant-based food is growing
As such, Anuga is reacting to the rising trend within the trade of extending its line-up of plant-based own brands. This in turn is a reaction to the consumers’ growing demand: According to Innova Market Insights, a global market researcher, the market for plant-based meat substitute products in Germany has recorded significant growth both in terms of turnover and the number of product launches. Between 2022 and 2023 the market value increased by 7.8%, from a market size of USD 639 million in the year 2022 up to USD 689 million in the year 2023. Furthermore, in April 2024, 27% more meat substitute products were introduced onto the market than in the same period of the previous year, which represents a peak in innovation. Own brand companies also recorded positive growth in the category of meat substitute products – 34% of the market launches of meat substitute products in this country are now own brands.

“The figures impressively underline how the increasing consumer orientation towards plant-based products is sustainably changing the food market and opening up new growth potential. Our new trade show, Anuga Alternatives, is the answer to the market’s dynamic development towards plant-based food and a decisive trendsetter for the trade and industry. Visitors have the unique opportunity to gain in-depth insights into an aspiring industry, get to know new suppliers and products, inform themselves about the latest trends and keep abreast of the developments of the food industry of tomorrow,” stated Bastian Mingers, Vice President Food Trade Fairs, Koelnmesse GmbH.

Anuga Out of Home: Newly organised for even better business initiations
The new trade show Anuga Alternatives goes hand in hand with a relaunch of the hitherto segment Anuga Out of Home. The manufacturers will no longer be bundled under their own segment, but instead integrated into the trade shows that match their respective offer to enable more efficient matchmaking.

For the coming Anuga, which is being staged from 04.-08.10.2025, companies can register on-line; the early bird offer ends on 30.09.2024.

Cologne, June 2024

Latest news: