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Biofach (world’s leading trade fair for organic food) and Vivaness (international trade fair for natural cosmetics) attracted 3,273 exhibitors to Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 13-16 February 2019. This year showcased exhibitors from the largest number of countries ever, namely 98, with 51,500 trade visitors from 143 countries. Albeit my 6th visit to this incredible Trade Fair, it never gets old and the atmosphere is always gigantic. You can feel the enthusiasm for the sector from the very first moment – a great energy.

Besides using this Trade Fair as an opportunity to meet with our International buyers, it’s an incredible event to explore and view new and exciting products in Organic. BIOFACH trends this year included: vegetarian/vegan, protein products, convenience and zero-waste products.
 
Vegetarian and vegan products continue to be a significant trend that is also reflected at the BIOFACH Novelty Stand. Alongside traditional vegan ingredients like soy, products based on cashews, almonds or peas are also proving popular with consumers. Protein-containing foodstuffs are also very popular, whether they come in the form of oils, bars, spreads or shakes. BIO Shots were a first this year – from Organic Ginger, Carrot, Turmeric to Coffee, in small 60ml PET and glass bottles.
 
Another sustained trend is for uncomplicated meals that are quickly prepared. Convenience products are now an integral part of the range offered by the organic segment. This notwithstanding, more and more consumers are also focusing on “external values”, i.e. the product packaging. Innovative packaging, just like the “unpackaged” concepts under the category “zero-waste”, is a significant issue in the sector and one that experts believe will continue to gain in importance.
 
There’s a good outlook for the international organic food industry – both in Europe and worldwide. It was very encouraging to see that SOGA Organic products are well on trend and in some cases ‘ahead of its time’. The fact that our products have NOTHING added – only pure Certified Organic NFC Juice – makes is even more unique, as many of the frozen juice products we saw had additional products added. It’s encouraging to know that we are on the right track. Our biggest challenge is to eliminate single use plastic in our packaging and we are determined to make this happen.

We are looking forward to yet another exciting Citrus season.