TUTTOFOOD was a pleasant surprise. It was bigger and more international than we had envisaged. The show comes up every two years, the next one being due in May 2021.
The show was broadly broken down into:
- international pavilions (mainly grocery)
- pasta, bakery and oil
- frozen, including seafood
- beverages, including wine and beer
- meat
- dairy
- confectionery
- sustainability and innovation
With 10 halls, the show was a good size. With the exception of the international and beverage halls, Italian exhibitors dominated most of the category halls. Understandably, it was difficult to find a non-Italian company in the oil, pasta and bakery halls.
International exhibitors seemed pleased with the result. There were good quality buyers from Italy, Europe and many parts of Asia walking the show. It appears that the visitors were more international than the exhibitors.
The beer village was small and a bit disappointing. There were only 3-4 craft beer offerings.
Hall 1 had most of the international pavilions, including:
- Spain
- Canada
- Greece
- USA
- Ecuador
- China
- Korea
- Macedonia
- Slovenia
There were roughly 12 US stands, partly because the US Department of Agriculture endorsed TUTTOFOOD for the first time, which enables exhibitors to recover more of their costs through US Government support. Prominent among the US exhibitors were:
- Southern United States Trade Association (SUSTA)
- US Foreign Agricultural Service (Italy and France represented)
- California Prune Board
- San Saba Pecan
- Stonewall Kitchen
- Almond Board of California
In addition to that, the US Meat Export Federation had a stand in the meat hall.
Exhibitors reported that the exhibition was well organised. Transport from central Milan was easy: there is a metro line which goes directly from there to the show in about 20 minutes.
All in all, a good general food show in southern Europe with many international buyers visiting.