On 16-18 November, EXPO Kraków hosted HORECA®/GASTROFOOD/ENOEXPO®, the largest hospitality trade show in Poland, with more than 300 exhibitors, 8843 visitors, training courses, workshops, Master Class tastings, prestigious winemaking competitions and important side events, such as the Polish Roasting & Cup Tasters Championship and the Polish Game Championship. In brief: three days packed with new experiences, sensations and unforgettable emotions.
An important element of business strategy
Companies flock to HORECA®/GASTROFOOD to exhibit furnishings for restaurants, coffee shops and other food and drink establishments, as well as hotels and recreational facilities. For many, the trade show represents an important element in their marketing strategy; an opportunity to showcase products and services to a broad range of customers allows them to save both time and money. It also creates an environment in which they can forge new contacts, with considerable future payoffs. “The trade show exceeded my wildest dreams. I expected much less business contact, smaller companies and, in the end, our portfolio attracted the attention of large operators from the HoReCa sector. We are very pleasantly surprised to meet them at this particular trade show, I’m very glad. Above all, we wanted to show off our new brand on the market, and, of course, forge new contacts to help us distribute our products”, emphasised Przemysław Bekasiewicz, Business Development Manager, Florencja Dystrybucja, the exclusive distributor of the Italian ice cream brand San Montana. HORECA®/GASTROFOOD is targeted at professionals who want to reach specific clients. The positive feedback we have received in 2022 allows us to conclude that the goal has been achieved. “Just like any other year, the trade show this year has been great. Importantly, the exhibitors are real professionals: professional businesses with professional equipment, offering professional solutions. People who come here look for solutions that are professional rather than merely the cheapest available, and we are here to give them what they need”, said Adrian Pittner, Director of the Marketing and PR Department, Kala Sp. z o.o. The high quality of new business contacts was also mentioned by Marcin Wajda, Marketing Director at Winterhalter Gastronom Polska: “This year, just like any other year, HORECA® strikes us as a very big, very important and very interesting regional event. A great advantage is that it gives you access to people who really care about the highest quality of products, services and their business, and are staunchly committed to continually raising the bar. Judging by the turnout, it is clear there has been a lot of interest. We have met new partners and held a lot of talks. Several contracts are already on the table, too. I give this trade show a thumbs up.”
Pavilion of the US Department of Agriculture
On the first day of the trade show, we celebrated the festive opening of the American Pavilion. The US Consul-General, Erin Nickerson, accompanied by Alicia Hernandez, the Agricultural Counselor at the US Embassy and Grażyna Grabowska, the CEO of Targi w Krakowie, officially cut the ribbon and said: “The US is overjoyed to have its own pavilion at HORECA®/GASTROFOOD again, after a hiatus caused by the pandemic. This is proof of our long-standing relations. Exhibitors have showcased fantastic US products, ranging from beer and wine to dried fruit, nuts and excellent beef. Targi w Krakowie have organised a first-rate event. EXPO Kraków is simply fantastic and all the exhibitors are amazed at how well the trade show was prepared. We are really waiting for a further growth in Polish-American relations thanks to all these products imported from the US”. Poland is the largest market for US food and beverages in Eastern and Central Europe. In 2019, we imported a total of 26 billion dollars’ worth of food, 512 million of which were imports from the US. The HORECA® trade show was an excellent opportunity to try American products and establish new commercial links with their producers.
Polish Game Championship
Hunting cuisine was the leading theme of the show zone at HORECA®/GASTROFOOD. It is no accident, then, that it also hosted the 3rd Polish Game Championship, organised by Las-Kalisz, the only regular culinary competition in Poland aimed at promoting wild game in the HoReCa sector. This year, contestants had to whip up a rabbit meat and liver appetiser, and a roe deer leg main course. Teams composed of a chef and an assistant had 120 minutes to prepare 10 portions of each dish. The Grand Prix went to Jakub Żymelski and Bartosz Zajdel, from the Antonińska Hotel&Restaurant and the Loft Restaurant in Gostyń, whose delicious dishes delighted the jury of six. Adam Chrząstowski, a chef who also serves as the Culinary Ambassador of Las-Kalisz, President of the Bocuse d’Or Poland Academy and Vice-President of the Polish Culinary Initiative Association, said: “Wild game stands for nature, it stands for health. Game and rabbit are natural products and we decided to bet on them, because we understand that they are the products of the future. This is the way that nutrition is going, this is where gastronomy is going. And this is what our guests expect. This is the future and we are sticking to that”. Adam Chrząstowski also appreciated the options offered by EXPO Kraków. “I really recommend EXPO Kraków for similar events. The centre has hosted two editions of Bocuse d’Or, which I helped organise, as well as a hunting trade show, where we also put up a booth and held cuisine shows under the Las-Kalisz brand, and now the Polish Game Championship, because it’s just so professional.”
Polish Coffee Championship in Kraków
For the first time in its history, HORECA®/GASTROFOOD/ENOEXPO® was also accompanied by the Polish Roasting & Cup Tasters Championship, organised by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), an industry association that brings together individual baristas, as well as coffee shops, roasters, hotels, producers and distributors. The goal of the competition was to identify the best professional cup taster, who excels in their ability to discern tastes and aromas, as well as in how quickly they distinguish between various coffees from the Specialty segment. The twin title of Cup Taster and Roaster Champion 2022 went to Aleksander Smęt, Roast Master at LaCava – Specialty Coffee Roastery. The event had a fantastic atmosphere that eased the stress of competition. “Everyone is very happy to have been able to come here and that it all looks the way it does. The stage prepared for the Championship is one of the best venues, the best places, that we have seen in the Polish Specialty Coffee scene in at least four years at least. We are really very happy and hope to continue our cooperation”, emphasised Aleksander Krzych, Board Member at SCA Poland. He added: “We chose this trade show and EXPO Kraków to host our competition, because the centre is just the best venue for this purpose. It has the best of two worlds at the moment. The trade show attracts people interested in gastronomy, those who run food and drink establishments or are planning to invest in this business. So, this is really the perfect venue for the championship. It is a chance to give visibility to those who do their job at the highest level”.
The whole world in one place
Organised alongside HORECA®/GASTROFOOD for 19 years, the ENOEXPO® trade show turned EXPO Kraków into a hub of wine experts from around the world, including the Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary and Italy. There was no end of wine tastings and conversations.
The ENOEXPO® trade show has grown in recent years, attracting troves of guests with its many attractions: presentations of wines and other alcohols from different countries, meetings and workshops with famous experts, Master Class wine tastings and prestigious competitions, such as the International Winemaking Competition and the Polish Wine and Cider Competition for the ENOEXPO® medal. Exhibitors are also well aware that the trade show is a boon for promotional campaigns, as it attracts many potential customers to the same spot at the same time. “This is our first time at ENOEXPO ®. The atmosphere is great, with many people from the HoReCa industry, people from the winemaking business, wine importers, distributors, connoisseurs and aficionados. Czech wine has already attracted some interest in Poland, but it still needs a bit of promotion and ENOEXPO® is a good place for this. We want everyone in Poland to know that there are vineyards in Southern Moravia, that they can live an amazing wine-tasting adventure there, and that these wines are really outstanding – they don’t just win awards, they are also much loved by wine lovers all over the world”, said Filip Hlavinka, Owner of Grono Tour and representative of the Jedlička vineyard (Czech Republic). ENOEXPO® also allows businesses to sound out the Polish market and learn about customer expectations. “For us, ENOEXPO® was a source of validation, a confirmation that Polish consumers and the Polish HoReCa industry like the taste of our wines. We won competitions but, more importantly, we got positive feedback from end users, i.e. those who will take our wines home, who confirmed that our wines are a good match for this market. Semi-sweet and semi-dry wines were a hit. Romania specialises more in dry and semi-dry varieties, but Polish consumers who came to the trade show often asked for semi-sweet wines, which we also have in our portfolio. So, they liked both the labels and the look and taste of our wine. We think it was a great event; it confirmed that there is room for our products in this market. We are very happy and we hope to see you next year, since it makes no sense to get into exports, be active for a year, and then just sit back and wait for customers to come to you. It is an effort that needs to be sustained for several more years at least”, emphasised Rares Florea, Country Manager from a Romanian vineyard, Domeniile Averesti. Many foreign companies also choose ENOEXPO®, because the trade show attracts many importers. “We are happy to be here. It’s a very interesting trade show. We have done a lot of networking. These have been three very busy days, but we are beyond grateful to everyone who came here. We represent an association that brings together around 80 producers. Many of these brands already have their representatives in Poland, but the trade show creates an opportunity to present other distributors and expand our group of importers. ENOEXPO® is an important part of the plan we carry out throughout the year”, confided Luís de Castro, President of the Portuguese Wine Association of Tejo (Comissão Vitivinícola Regional do Tejo).
Even though ENOEXPO® is dominated by wine, cider and craft beer producers also have a great time at the event and know how to tap its potential. “My partner and I are very happy. The turnout has been very good, there is a lot of interest in wines, including Polish wines, and Polish alcohols. We came here with our ciders and also have a lot of interested customers, both retail clients, who just want to taste and learn about craft ciders, which are not widely available yet, and also potential B2B clients, or distributors and wholesalers, not only from Kraków, but all of Poland; we made contacts with someone from practically every voivodeship”, reported Piotr Kowalczyk, a fruit farmer and representative of Cydr Chyliczki.
Anyone who attended HORECA®/GASTROFOOD/ENOEXPO® went away with a solid dose of inspiration, knowledge and new contacts. In the HoReCa business, we know that appetite comes with eating, so we are wrapping up one edition, but already thinking of the next. The details will come in due course, but you can already save the date: 8–10 November 2023.
