PA Pavilion at ANUGA 2009

The PA Office of International Business Development partnered with the WTC to organize and staff a “Pennsylvania” booth at the world’s largest trade show for the food industry, ANUGA 2009.  The fair took place in Cologne from October 11-14.  The purpose of the booth at ANUGA was twofold, one to offer subsidized space for Pennsylvania companies to showcase their products to the world, and second to promote the Commonwealth and the southcentral PA region as a location for investment for food related companies.  Tina Weyant coordinated the exhibit and staffed the booth during the show.

According to the trade show organizer's final report, the 30th Anuga generated high-powered market momentum for the food industry in Germany and abroad. Against the background of a difficult overall economic situation, the market-oriented trade fair concept of Anuga once again impressed everyone involved. 149,349 trade visitors from 180 countries came to the fair, with 63 per cent (115,066) coming from abroad.  The number of exhibitors - 6,522 suppliers from 98 countries - remained unchanged at its previous high level.

Two Pennsylvania companies exhibited their product lines in the PA booth:  Herr’s Foods and Lancaster Fine Foods.  Two other PA companies, Advanced Food Products and Snyders of Hanover also exhibited at ANUGA  - in the same Hall as the Pennsylvania booth. 

The PA booth was part of the USA Pavilion, which attracted a lot of attention!

In additional to promoting Pennsylvania at the ANUGA booth, Charles Blankenship, President of the Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corporation, traveled to ANUGA on behalf of the southcentral PA region, and directly promoted Pennsylvania to pre-qualified “investment” leads.  This list had been generated with the help of PA overseas investment offices.  Together, Tina and Charles called on 20 investment leads during the show and coordinated and presented 2 seminars to promote PA as an ideal investment location! 

PackExpo 2009

The WTC, with help from First Energy, and with funding support from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development secured and organized the logistical details for a Pennsylvania Booth at the PackExpo Show in Las Vegas from October 5-7. 2009.  

The tradeshow focused on the food packaging, processing and converting machinery industries.  Sixty-seven companies from PA exhibited at the show, including 13 from the Southcentral PA region. 

WTC Members at the Pack/Process Expo included Elsner Engineering Works, Adhesives Research, and Westfalia Technologies.

Melissa Stiles from the WTC, together with representatives from the York County Economic Development Corporation and the Berks County Economic Partnership, represented the southcentral Pennsylvania region and the Commonwealth at the PackExpo trade show.   In addition representatives from the Erie Regional Chamber and from the Northwest Commission participated in the Team Pennsylvania booth.   

Melissa met with all 13 regional companies that were exhibiting at the show and the Pennsylvania team visited targeted companies at the show to promote investment in the southcentral region and the Commonwealth and fielded questions from various visitors to the booth. A total of 8 valid investment leads were collected.  A special “Thank You” also goes to Hershey Chocolate for sponsoring 125 lbs of Hershey Kisses, which were appreciated by everyone.

Show statistics:

Visitor Attendance:                22,721

Exhibitor Personnel:                11,246

Total Attendance:                   33,967

International Attendance:         3,580

Number of Exhibitors:              1,140