EXPOCENTRE Fairgrounds has opened its doors to the 28th edition of the International Exhibition for Equipment, Technologies, Raw Materials and Ingredients for the Food Processing Industry – Agroprodmash 2023.

The multisectoral concept of the show allows industry professionals to see the products of Russian manufacturers of food equipment and ingredients, as well as the latest developments of the world's leading brands in various segments of the food processing industry.

Agroprodmash 2023 welcomes 847 exhibitors from 18 countries, including 622 Russian manufacturers, suppliers and integrators. This year the floor space exceeds 64,000 gross square metres, which is 40% higher than last year.

The exhibition presents both Russian developments and equipment, technologies and ingredients from leading manufacturers from Austria, Belarus China, Czechia, Germany, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkiye, and Uzbekistan. China and Turkiye have national pavilions.

President at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergey Katyrin said at the official opening ceremony that in recent years Agroprodmash had been developing really fast in terms of content thanks to the attention of our industry, entrepreneurs, the country's leadership, which attaches great importance to agricultural producers, processors, and this sector of the economy in general.

The 28th International Exhibition for Equipment, Technologies, Raw Materials and Ingredients for the Food Processing Industry – Agroprodmash 2023 – will open at EXPOCENTRE Fairgrounds, Mosocow, on Monday, October 9. The event is organised by EXPOCENTRE AO with the support of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, and under the auspices of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The multisectoral concept of the show will allow professionals to see the products of Russian manufacturers of food equipment and ingredients, as well as the latest developments of the world's leading brands in various segments of the food processing industry.

This year, Agroprodmash welcomes 847 exhibitors (including 620 Russian companies) from 18 countries. The number of exhibitors has increased by 43% compared to last year. The exhibition area has increased by 40% and this year is over 26,000 square metres.

Today Expocentre Fairgrounds hosted the signing of a letter of intent between EXPOCENTRE AO and the International Industrial Academy, a non-profit private educational institution for continuing professional education.

The agreement provides for cooperation in promoting the achievements of national science, introducing the latest scientific and technical developments and innovative technologies in key sectors of the modern economy, supporting and promoting the development of youth entrepreneurship, and developing exhibition and congress activities.

At the signing ceremony, Alexey Vyalkin, Director General of EXPOCENTRE AO, expressed confidence that cooperation with the academy, as one of the leading institutions of professional education, would make Expocentre's business events richer, more valuable and smarter.

The Agroprodmash 2022 conference programme includes the 2nd Congress on the Agriculture Industry Digitalisation. It is organised by Sphere Publishing House in partnership with CROC IT Company. On behalf of EXPOCENTRE AO the congress participants were welcomed by Sergey Selivanov, First Deputy Director General.

The congress includes four sessions: the Panel on the Agriculture Industry Digitalisation in an Age of Change: Challenges, Forecasts and State Support Measures; the Roundtable on IT Foundation on Russian Technologies as the Basis for the Agriculture Industry Development; the Panel on Robots in the Food Industry: a Course Towards Innovation; the Panel on Advanced IT Solutions for Quick Wins: Innovations and Successful Cases.

Participants discuss IT solutions that have proven their effectiveness in agribusiness. They consider various solutions for building a digital foundation to transform business and increase the efficiency and transparency of key business processes of enterprises. Speakers talk about how to increase production productivity, reduce the cycle time of technological operations and downtime of equipment, and eliminate errors related to human factor. Experts from IT companies provide the audience with practical information on many industry-specific issues.

Today, Director General at EXPOCENTTRE AO Alexey Vyalkin and President at the Russian Bakers Union Alexey Lyalin have signed an agreement of intent.

The agreement stipulates the joint promotion of achievements of Russian science for introduction of the latest scientific and technological developments, and innovative technologies in key sectors of the modern economy, as well as support and promotion of entrepreneurship, and exhibition and congress activities.

The parties noted the special role of professional public associations in the new economic environment as centres of competence for the development of interregional relations in the business, science and technology sectors, and leading congress and exhibition hubs as key elements of business support and development infrastructure.

“We are grateful to our colleagues for signing this agreement within the Agroprodmash exhibition,” said Alexey Vyalkin. “For us, it is a continuation of EXPOCENTRE's work to strengthen ties with industry associations, which means not only developing opportunities provided by the exhibition platform, but also expanding the formats of work to support Russian producers in terms of finding partners and developing their strategic objectives.”

The conference programme of Agroprodmash 2022 was opened with the Russian Conference on Strategic Challenges of Agribusiness: Anti-crisis Solutions, Alternative Logistics, Raw Materials and Ingredients. The event is organised by EXPOCENTRE AO and KVK Imperia.

Opening the forum, Director General at KVK Imperia Andrey Podlesnov said that this year the food industry was facing new challenges. According to him, new threats have emerged and affect all systemic processes of any manufacturing business such as modernisation of development, supply of equipment, components and raw materials, logistics, product sales, and others. Today, the food industry accounts for more than 15% of this country's total industrial output. And at the household level, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center estimates that Russians spend 60% of their income on food. This means that the agriculture industry remains in demand in all periods of history.

The first analytical session was devoted to the trends and prospects for the dairy, meat, bakery and fish industries in the context of sanctions pressure and partial mobilization. Experts spoke about the impact of Russia's macroeconomic and financial performance on agribusiness enterprises, the economic and production trends that have come to the fore during the period of unprecedented sanctions, the main trends in Russians' consumer behaviour, and the practical aspects of import substitution in dairy, fish processing and bakery. The experts included founder and managing partner at the Neocon expert consulting company Denis Raksha, lead analyst at Dairy News Ekaterina Zakharova, Vice President at the Russian Bakers Union Dmitry Semenov, representative of the Romir research holding Elena Shilova, and analyst at Skylex Group Maksim Kuznetsov.