After three successful trade fair days, ISM came to an end on 30 January 2019 with an excellent result. Over 38,000 trade visitors from over 140 countries experienced a host of new products and an attractive event programme at the world's largest trade fair for sweets and snacks.
With a foreign share of over 70 percent, ISM achieved an upward trend in the development of international trade visitors. 1,661 exhibitors from 76 countries presented a comprehensive range of exhibits and used the trade fair to present their new products.
ISM was able to slightly increase its level of internationality again up to 87 percent. "Once again in these difficult times, ISM confirmed its international standing as the industry's most important business platform once again in 2019. Not only the stable, high key figures corroborate this, but also the high level of quality of the exhibitors and visitors," summed up Gerald Böse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse.
Bastian Fassin, Chairman of the International Sweets and Biscuits Fair Task Force (AISM), added: "We also set benchmarks regarding the quality of the offer in the worldwide comparison. The top buyers and decision-makers of the industry selected ISM as the platform for their orders or for establishing new business contacts.”
Top purchasers again came from large trading companies and importers. The German trade was also represented in its entirety once again. Of the top 20 international food retailers, 18 were on-site. Furthermore, the growing significance in the online trade was reflected by the participation of numerous top e-commerce companies at the trade fair such as Walmart and Amazon. The fair recorded significant growths in the number of trade visitors from East European and the Baltic countries, South Europe and North America.
