ANUGA EXPANDING FOOD CATEGORIES

COLOGNE, Germany -- Anuga, the giant food show held here, will unveil an expanded category breakdown for its event Sept. 30 through Oct. 5 at the Koln Messe fairgrounds here. In total, Anuga will include about 6,000 exhibiting companies from all continents in some 2.8 million square feet of gross exhibition space. It will increase to eight the number of food and drink categories with individual exhibitor areas.

spreads, which will cover a total area of 140,000 square feet.

The following areas were covered previously and will continue as separate exhibit spaces:

Meat, sausage, game and poultry, which will be extended by more than 45% to a total of 345,000 square feet.

Frozen foods and ice cream, which will cover floor space of over 190,000 square feet. This is a 28% increase over previous space.

Milk and dairy products, which will be expanded to 240,000 square feet, an increase of 24%.

Drinks, which will include wine, sparkling wine, nonalcoholic drinks, beer and spirits. In total, drinks will occupy 516,000 square feet.

The event will also include an international overview of technology and services for the catering trade. The range of automatic packaging machines, coffee machines and food packaging technology will be extended. The product range of catering technology will be concentrated on large kitchens as well as fast-food, relay and pantry kitchens.

During a press conference on Anuga held recently in New York, Gerd Harig, chief executive officer of the Federal Association of the German Retail Grocery Trade, pointed to Anuga's roots in the world food market.

"Anuga was able to celebrate an anniversary last year, namely the 75th anniversary of its inauguration," he said. "It is thus not only the oldest event of this kind, but at the same time unchallenged as the world's largest and most important food trade show.

"The steadily increasing number of exhibitors and visitors from the United States and Canada underlines, among other things, how highly Anuga is also regarded by the trade specialists on your continent."

Also at the press event, Wilhelm Niedergoker, executive director of Koln Messe, stressed the importance of the city of Cologne to world trade.

"Cologne is the world's No. 1 trade show center for a total of 25 sectors of industry," he said.

He said that in addition to food, these included fashion, machinery, furniture, domestic appliances, photography, and sports and leisure products.

"The foreign share in terms of suppliers at Cologne's No. 1 trade shows is at least 50%," he said. "At Anuga, it is even as high as 70%."