 |  |
Here come Detrop Boutique, Artozyma, and the Athens International Jewellery Show with a total of 625 exhibitors, 4000 business meetings, and international delegations
A trio of exhibitions in Thessaloniki and Athens will be held over the next four days by TIF-Helexpo, with Detrop Boutique, Artozyma, and the Athens International Jewellery Show, during which more than 4000 business meetings will be held.
Detrop Boutique and Artozyma have attracted 355 direct and indirect exhibitors this year, from 16 countries, in 7 exhibition pavilions, while a total of 230 Hosted Buyers and trade visitors from 32 countries will be welcomed. Trade visitors include importers with experience in promoting and selling Greek products abroad, distributors that supply major retail chains, supermarket chains that carry out direct imports, delicatessen chains, organic product importers, and others.
Greek gastronomy will be represented at the exhibition by 8 Regions (Central Macedonia, Eastern Macedonia-Thrace, the Ionian Islands, the Northern Aegean, Central Greece, Crete, Western Macedonia, Thessaly) and the Municipality of Kalamata, which will present olive oil from Messinia.
Innovation in food production, small Greek businesses exporting to international markets, delicatessen foods, modern sales and distribution channels, and all developments in the sector have found their place at the 29th Detrop Boutique. At the same time, the 9th Artozyma, which is the largest exhibition of its kind in the past decade, has attracted the most important companies in baking and confectionery raw materials, as well as packaging and equipment.
The two exhibitions are framed by innovative side events. The ‘Delicious Moments’ series of events at Detrop Boutique, in cooperation with the Chef Stories company, includes:
- A modern “grocery store” in Pavilion 9, the Delicious Grocery, on the shelves of which visitors will find participating exhibitor products.
- In a wine tasting space in Pavilion 8, the ‘Cheese ‘n’ Wine’ theme salon will hold 10 hour-long events presented, by specialised staff, on wine and spirit labels, highlighting the value of pairing dairy products, as well as spreads, etc.
- Also in Pavilion 8 will be the ‘Beer & Cold Cuts’ theme salon, presenting a variety of beer labels with the appropriate cold cut pairing, as well as with other accompanying products.
The next three days will also see the 2nd Congress on aromatic & medicinal plants held in Pavilion 8, titled ‘Aromatic-Medicinal Plants & Greek superfoods: a powerful driver of financial growth’, organised by the Association of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Greece, in cooperation with TIF-Helexpo.
At Artozyma, side events include:
- The 4th Pan-Hellenic Bread Championship, with the participation of six four-member teams, which have been selected from the whole country. ‘Pinakoti’ bread is being honoured this year.
- he 1st Pan-Hellenic Confectionery Competition that will be held by the Hellas Pastry Chef Club this year, will be star-studded. Top and internationally recognised pastry chefs will arrive in Thessaloniki, to participate in the judges panel that will choose the sweetest creations. Following the competition, a team of Greek pastry chefs will be formed, which will represent Greece at international competitions.
- The Free From… Forum, a congress on all the new trends and secrets of healthy eating, which will teach participants about innovative “free from” products, which are sugar, gluten, and lactose free, or free from other ingredients, and about the secrets of the vegan diet, etc.
At the same time, more than 270 businesses will participate in the largest annual business meeting in the jewellery and watch sector, Athens International Jewellery Show 2020, which is being held from 21 to 24 February at Metropolitan Expo in Attica. Participants in the Athens International Jewellery Show include jewellery and watch manufacturers, workshops, designers, importers, and representatives, while it is addressed to professionals who want to renew their business connections and develop new partnerships with company in Greece and abroad. Participants at the largest exhibition event on jewellery and watches in Greece include exhibitors from Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, Belgium, Cyprus, and the United Kingdom, while the exhibition will cover 12,000 square metres.
Today's Press conference
The potential of TIF-Helexpo to organise major exhibition events at the same time, in view of the three events, was underlined at today’s Press conference by the President of the exhibition body, Tasos Tzikas, while on his side CEO Kyriakos Pozrikidis stressed that the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre will, over the next few days, become a meeting point for bakers and pastry chefs from all over Greece, as well as for small producers of delicatessen products.
Kalamata will meet the North through Detrop Boutique, which will become the springboard for the promotion and highlighting of the region’s production in extra virgin olive oil and olives, mentioned the Mayor of Kalamata, Thanasis Vasilopoulos. In fact, he made known that a third of Greek olive oil production takes place in Messinia.
He also expressed the intention of the local authority to work with TIF-Helexpo in organising a trade show in Kalamata focused on olive oil.
Thessaloniki has a lot in the oven all year round, and not just during Artozyma, noted the President of the Hellenic Federation of Bakers Michalis Mousios. He stated that in Greece there are 14,000 bakers who directly or indirectly employ 140,000 people, while he noted that over the next few days the Federation will forward to the government their request to return the term “bakery” to the real bakers.
In the meanwhile, in research carried out on behalf of the Federation, from 21-24 October 2019 in a sample of 603 consumers, it transpired that eight out of ten buy their bread from neighbourhood bakeries more often, and the same percentage considered the quality of the bread from their bakery to be better. Also, 4 out of 10 believe that bakeries have cheaper bread prices than other sale points.
The support of Thessaloniki pastry chefs to Artozyma was expressed by the President of the Guild of Confectioner Shopkeepers of Thessaloniki, Marios Papadopoulos, who mentioned the Free From... Forum, which they are organising in cooperation with the ‘Profitis Ilias’ Bakers’ Union of Thessaloniki on Saturday.
Artozyma was characterised as an exhibition with a lot in the oven by the President of the ‘Profitis Ilias’ Bakers’ Union of Thessaloniki, Elsa Koukoumeria, in reference to, among other things, the 4th Bread Championship being organised in the framework of the exhibition.
If desserts are the jewels of taste, then jewellery is the dessert of aesthetics, stated the President of the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Silver- and Goldsmiths, Jewellers and Watchmakers, Petros Kalpakidis, connecting the three exhibitions. He also announced that POVAKO will subsidise the participation of member businesses in the next KOSMIMA exhibition in Thessaloniki, in order to support the event, while he called consumers to choose Greek jewellery.
The President of the Pastry Chef Club of Greece mentioned the 1st Pan-Hellenic Confectionery Competition, which will be held in Thessaloniki, while expressing the desire for this event to become an institution, while the founder of the the Pan-Hellenic Bread Championship, Parthena Pastrafidou, noted that the goal is to support small bakers who are under a lot of pressure.
Lastly, the deputy general director of TIF-Helexpo Alexis Taxirlis noted that the National Baking Team may use the exhibition centre’s facilities for its needs