The tenth edition of Hi Europe & Ni in Frankfurt, Germany, delivered the key ingredient that makes it unique for exhibitors and trade visitors alike: the critical link between food, health, dietary supplements and functional foods.

The event organiser recorded steady growth with more than 550 companies, amongst them 150 new exhibitors, showcasing and presenting at Europes most important health ingredient trade show at the end of November. The strongest increase in exhibitors was in the natural and organic pavilion, which has grown by more than 60%.

With companies presenting novel and innovative products, and a comprehensive range of educational offerings, attendee interest was high: 9000-plus attendees from almost 100 nations used Hi Europe & Ni as an industry meeting point and melting pot for new ideas.

The fact that a total of 16,000-plus visits were recorded reflected that many participants visited the fair several times. Key players such as Red Bull, Nestlé, Ferrero and Unilever sent their delegates to attend this top class exhibition – with post-event analysis showing that almost 73% of the attendees had budget responsibility, with 36% having higher management roles.

Natural functionality, sports nutrition and personalisation, as well as sugar reduction and reformulation, were this year’s key topics.

The amount and frequency of visitors using the online Business Matchmaking Tool illustrated the status of the show as the ultimate meeting place for existing and future business partners. With exhibitors and visitors being able to arrange onsite meetings in advance of the event, more than 500 appointments were scheduled using the online tool. That’s one meeting every 2–3 minutes!

Successful mix of networking and education

Alongside the exhibition itself, the Health ingredients Europe team collaborated with partners from industry, academia and market research to organise a high-quality programme of more than 100 supplementary educational sessions.

With presentations and trend reports in the Industry Insights Theatre and the Supplier Solution Theatre, Innovation Tours, workshops, the 2-day Hi Europe Conference and the Future of Nutrition Summit, the trade show has certainly established itself as an ideal location for professional education.

The success of the two free-to-attend theatres was reflected in the huge visitor interest – in fact, both locations were so packed that extra seating had to be arranged. Also the number of Innovation Tours was doubled this year: in addition to the key topic tours, led by Nutrimarketing experts, ProVeg International offered a plant solution tour, while GOED brought delegates the latest insight into innovations in the omega-3 sector.

In addition, the Hi Europe Conference hosted 200 delegates, double the number of participants compared with the previous Hi Europe & Ni. With the pre-show Future of Nutrition Summit, the organizer team offered detailed insight into the future of the industry with trend topics such as personalised nutrition and sports nutrition. New attendee records were also set at this years Womens Networking Breakfast and the Food Evolution Breakfast.

Julien Bonvallet, Brand Manager of Hi Europe & Ni, says delightedly: "I received feedback from many exhibitors that they were enthusiastic about the relevance of the contacts and the large number of leads this year. Ensuring a high quality of visitors is our main focus; I am very pleased that we succeeded so well in our tenth edition. 81 per cent of the stand space for Hi Europe & Ni 2020 was booked on site at this year’s show, and most key stand positions have already been snapped up."

Next year, Fi Europe & Ni will open its doors from 3–5 December in the Parc des Expositions Villepinte in Paris, France. The following year, Hi Europe & Ni will start in Frankfurt on 1 December 2020.

Exhibitor feedback: relevance and quality

Bart Pennings, Global Sales Manager Good Food Ingredients at Avebe, said: "As a founding company of Fi Europe and a second-time exhibitor at Hi Europe, we were very pleased with the audience, the feedback and the high level of customer engagement during the show. With growing market demand for our plant-based solutions, we’ll definitely be back at Hi Europe in 2 years’ time.”

Yago Orteu, Business Development Manager, Ferrer HealthTec: ”Our ingredients are not only relevant for the food industry, but also – and increasingly - for dietary supplements. In this sector, Hi Europe has become one of the must-attend trade shows for us. Sports nutrition has become a big topic for our company, in line with one of the main trends we have seen at the show.”

Dr Stefan Siebrecht, Managing Director, Taiyo GmbH: “For us, Hi Europe is always a good stage to present our extensive portfolio, which on the one hand helps to increase the nutritional value of numerous products and, on the other, offers enormous functional benefits from a technological point of view. We had much more traffic on our stand and were able to gain even more interesting contacts than last time round; it was a great success.”

Speaking for Glatt Ingenieurtechnik, which exhibited at Expo FoodTec, Lutz Heinzl, Sales Manager Food, Feed & Fine Chemicals, commented: “For us, this year’s Hi Europe was even better than 2 years ago. Many ingredient manufacturers approached us about suitable manufacturing processes for product development, and numerous visitors wanted to discuss contract manufacturing challenges and their desire for more flexibility and reliability in terms of product quality. We have already booked our stand for HiE Europe 2020 — same size, same position.”