Over 1,000 business meetings hosted buyers and exhibitors – sold out parallel events. Before the pandemic… memories were “awakened” by the exhibition “twin” Artozyma-Detrop Boutique, with visitors flooding the International Exhibition Center of Thessaloniki from April 2 to 4. But beyond the continuous flow and the number of professionals of the pastry and delicatessen industries found there, the exhibitors underlined the quality of the business contacts they made with potential buyers, securing many of them even orders. In fact, business meetings between invited trade visitors and exhibitors exceeded 1,000.
The companies that participated in the two exhibitions appeared particularly satisfied with the exhibition result, while some of the biggest “players” hastened to book their place for the next events. Artozyma-Detrop Boutique hosted a total of 350 exhibitors (direct and indirect), entries from 23 countries and more than 130 Hosted Buyers (invited trade visitors) from 22 countries.
Crowds of people at the parallel events
Great was the interest attracted by all the parallel events of Artozyma-Detrop Boutique, which gave a special vitality to all three stands that hosted them. In particular, the 5th Panhellenic Bread Championship, organized by Gruppo FL, highlighted this year for the first time the new generation of bakers, who declared… in love with dough. Through many preparations and baking, always under the guidance of the “old” of the National Baking Team, the first place was taken by the EPAS of Oriokastro Thessaloniki (Vocational School of Apprenticeship OAED), the second place by the EPAS of Kavala and the third place by the EPAS of Xanthi.
But the big winner was the chalkboard bread, which took its first steps at Artozyma 2020 and this year had its honor. At the same time, the National Baking Team enchanted the world with its masterclasses at the Bakery Lab, through traditional recipes from Crete, Lefkada, Macedonia, Thrace and the Peloponnese. The masterclasses of the Master Confectioners Club of Greece at the Pastry Lab were also impressive and with a lot of people, where people from the public also participated, who watched the sweet preparations for hours.
Attendance was also significant at the workshop of the Shopkeepers-Pastry Makers of Thessaloniki on Confectionery in the Digital Age, as well as at the scientific workshop of the Panhellenic Union of Food Technologists on the topic “Artisanal bakery and confectionery, approach to modern challenges”, as well as at the workshop of Hellenic Celiac Society for the certification of gluten-free products. The Greek Bites and Cheese & Wine events at Detrop Boutique, organized by the Chef Stories company, were also sold out. In the first thematic event, the participants got to know Greek producers and their excellent products through a gastronomic journey, while in the second they were guided to the secrets of Greek wine and cheese. The flavors of Macedonian cuisine were highlighted at stand 12 by the Region of Central Macedonia with the cooking of the Chefs’ Club of Northern Greece, where local ingredients took center stage.
Pole of attraction is the honored municipality of Pyrgos
The municipality of Pyrgos Ilias, honored municipality of the event, a nutritionally “blessed” place, had its place of honor at Detrop Boutique, in whose booth many processing companies participated, which produce PDO products of high nutritional value. Dynamic at Detrop Boutique was also the presence of seven Regions (Central Macedonia, Eastern Macedonia-Thrace, North Aegean, Central Greece, Peloponnese, Western Macedonia and Thessaly), as well as the participation of the Municipality of Gortynia, Chamber of Larissa and Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Thessaloniki which subsidized 9 member companies.
FILAIOS and TEF-Helexpo: In the foreground olive oil and olives with two international competitions
In the context of Detrop Boutique, however, two important international olive oil and olive competitions were organized for the first time, the “OLIVE OIL TROPHY” and “TABLE OLIVES TROPHY”, a result of the collaboration of the Philios Olive Oil & Olive Club with TIF-Helexpo, which laid the foundations for the creation of an olive oil olympiad. There was also a great turnout at the FILAIOS round table, as well as at the awarding of the prizes of the two competitions.
