Meat-Tech, processing & packaging show from 17 to 20 May 2021

It is a fair in person that promises to be the grand return of the event dedicated to processing and packaging solutions for meat, cold cuts, and ready meals industries, which will take place at Fiera Milano from 17 to 20 May 2021.

The co-location with TuttoFOOD in May 2021 consolidates the image of a fair that combines supply chains, creates relationships, intercepts different audiences by offering a comprehensive overview of the market. The event scheduled in 2021 for the sector, Meat-Tech, according to the organizers, will take place following the strictest anti-Covid security protocols established by Fiera Milano as a guarantee to exhibitors and visitors, as already experienced with trade shows held in the second half of 2020.

Supply chain, food safety, and sustainability are only some of the trend topics in Meat-Tech, chosen to provide the production chains at the show elements and applications capable of combining innovation, production efficiency, and technology transfer logics for the products of today and tomorrow.

In a challenging year like the current one, there are many elements of change that the market will have to face, starting with the changed consumption habits that see increasing sensitivity towards environmental issues and organic, chosen by 20% more consumers, in a coherent path that combines raw materials quality with more sustainable choices also on the packaging aspect.

According to Nomisma, the environmental sensitivity increased by the emergency start from the product choice to arrive at the packaging solution, so much that 9 out of 10 consumers believe that green packaging is an essential complementary element to the organic product.

But bio is not the only cluster growing in 2020 which, at its final stages, sees the consumption of the cured meat sector equal to 130,000 tons sold for a value of over 1,030 million euros, which follows the 413,000 tons of the processed meat, for a turnover of 2,978 million euros, according to ASSICA.

Ipack Ima Business Monitor, in collaboration with MECS, states that on a global level, good performance is also showed by the fish and seafood sector, which, with over EUR 126,400 million in sales, sees a growth by +4.7% estimated in the period 2021 to 2024.

Dairy is also among the fair focuses, in particular cheeses, that see 886 million kg expected for sales by the end of the year, for a value of over EUR 9,000 million, with expected growth of the world market in the period 2021 to 2024 by over 0.9%, equal to 21,682 million kg for EUR 178,795 million in sales.

Finally, to the cross themes in the fair, there is the offer of innovative ingredients for complex recipes that look with the growing interest in the market of free from or vegetal-based products.

The supporting associations of Meat-Tech, carrying with them skills, knowledge, and networking opportunities, represent the Italian manufacturing excellence: UCIMA (Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers’ Association), ASSICA (the meat and cold cut producers’ Association) to represent cured meat (processed beef and pork products) and pork slaughtering companies, and ANIMA ASSOFOODTEC (the Italian Association of Manufacturers of Machinery, Plant and Equipment for Food Production, Processing, and Preservation.