Tag Archives: trade

Anuga, the Fair

Anuga, the world´s leading food fair for the retail trade and the food service and catering market, will take place in Cologne (Germany) from next October 8 to 12. My scheduled attendance has been cancelled because I have been urgently required to fly to Dubai to discuss new DESITA and ECOFFEE projects.  As I wrote to all those who contacted me privately to set up meetings at Anuga, I will be more than happy to meet you during the upcoming events, just contact me at norman|at|ecoffee.it

Anuga this year this fair is expected to be very interesting not only for the many – 6.500- exhibitors but for the collateral events that will take place during the 4 days. I am particularly interested in the Wellfood Forum – showcasing the latest trends and the newest developments from all over the world in the areas of Wellfood and Functional Food – and the Fully Organic Special Show.

Organic foods will be expertly presented for the fourth time since Anuga 2003, in cooperation with the editors of bioPress. In addition to the approximately 1,600 exhibitors offering organic products and the more than 300 exhibitors of exclusively organic products in the Anuga Organic hall, visitors will also find more than 2,000 organic products for the food retail trade concentrated in the “Fully Organic” special show.

“Fully Organic” is now becoming the future agenda of food retail traders. And nothing reflects the latest developments in the organic product range of the retail food trade as clearly as the special show at Anuga Organic.

I will follow the Anuga Fair via web, but feel free to comment, send updates and news regarding the show posting comments on this post. Thank you!

Sustainable Coffee: what is it and is it really profitable?

Sustainability in the Retail & Ho.Re.Ca Business, what our ECOFFEE project is about, is based on a main concept: communication to consumers and customers must be clear and simple to make them better understand what are the added values of buying/consuming sustainable products.

For instance, let’s talk about Fairtrade, organic, Rain Forest Alliance or UTZ certified coffee. These are some of the labels with which coffee is traded nowadays and consumers can be quite confused by this abundance of sometimes not well explained terms. 

Among the many information source we always refer to when asked “What is sustainable coffee about?” we found that the Imbibe magazine one is the most consumer-friendly one, covering all main aspects of sustainability in the coffee business.

The other well known issue to our blog readers is “Is it really worth investing in sustainable coffee?”. Commodity traders know the answer, and this is “Yes, of course”. A recent publication by Intracen organization (International Trade Center), shows that “Demand for conventional (i.e. non-certified) coffee is largely stagnant in these markets, whilst it is thriving in emerging markets. Certified coffee, however, is showing strong growth and higher retail prices, particularly in mature markets. This trend is also followed by other commodities, including tea, cocoa and cotton. A new industry of inspectors and technicians has emerged to service the sustainability segment of the market”.