Interfood St Petersburg 2001 will be the fifth edition and is the most established exhibition in North West Russia for the food and drink industry. The show is supported at the highest level by the Ministry of Agriculture & Food of the Russian Federation, the St Petersburg Government Committee for Economy and Industrial Policy, the Association of Russia's North Western Territory Economic Co-operation and the Association of Dieticians.
In 2000, a dedicated Ice-cream section was opened at the show in support of the Russian ice-cream producers. On 27 April a "Best Ice-Cream Dessert" competition was held at the Russian Gourmet Business Club. This competition held among the city's leading dessert manufacturers, raised awareness to ice cream production in Russia.
Competition for Confectionery products
These special events highlights the dedicated Drinks and Ingredients exhibitions under the umbrella Interfood show. These sections are growing each year and becoming exhibitions in their own right, co-located with Interfood St Petersburg.
Drinks St Petersburg (previously Interdrink): running alongside this exhibition in 2000 was the International Tasting Competition. The competition raised the awareness of achievements made in the production of vodka, liqueurs, champagnes and sparkling wine, wines, cognacs and brandies. 55 Russian, Georgian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Moldovian and Kazakh producers took part in this event.
Ingredients St Petersburg: following the success of the Ingredients show in Moscow, Ingredients St Petersburg was launched as an section of the Interfood exhibition. However, the demand for food ingredients, additives and flavourings is equally strong in the North West region, as well as in Moscow. Ingredients St Petersburg has steadily grown each year to become an exhibition in itself, where international food ingredient companies can target the North West region directly and meet and do business with local ingredients companies.
FOODPACK / INTERFOOD TECH St Petersburg 2001
The international exhibition for food & drink packaging and processing will be in its 5th edition in 2001. 140 companies participated in Foodpack in 2000 with French and Italian leading packaging companies participating for the first time.
The Interfood Tech exhibition (Pishepromexpo) is in its 3rd year displaying equipment for food and drink processing. Restec, the Russian Exhibition Association, run a series of seminars alongside this exhibition to highlight the development of the consumer goods market and the development of national infrastructure for production, processing and sale of food in the North West region.
Last year, a series of technical seminars were held alongside this exhibition to provide a forum for discussions on the industry. The French Higher school of Packaging Engineers (ESIEC) organised "Packaging for the food industry: design, choice, novelties-its role and function". UROZHAI organised a company author's seminar, which included a presentation on new books published by Giord on Food additives. Throughout the exhibition, a series of scientific workshops on Beverages and Production Technologies was held.
INTERFOOD 2001
Preparation for the 5th anniversary has already begun. The organisers plan to expand the exhibition programme by adding more seminars and conferences for producers and wholesalers of food and drink products, packaging, ingredients, confectionery and ice-cream. In addition to these scientific and technical seminars, there will be competitions and special events to attract visitors About 60% of the participants last year have already confirmed their participation to the 5th Jubilee International Interfood 2001 exhibition.