2023 Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global set to be world’s largest seafood expo

The 2023 Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global is set to become the world’s largest seafood trade expo.

This year’s event will return to Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via 25 to 27 April, 2023 and will feature, to-date, more than 49,000 net square meters of exhibit space, breaking the event’s record for the largest edition in the expo's history. It will be 23 percent larger than the 2022 show, according to Portland, Maine, U.S.A.-based Diversified Communications, which operates the event.  [Editor’s note: Diversified Communications also owns SeafoodSource.]

The 2022 Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global was the first year Barcelona hosted the event. It followed two years of disrupted trade caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The event brought the seafood industry back together in-person, welcoming 26,703 industry professionals from all over the world in attendance, 1,556 exhibiting companies from 77 countries, and occupying 39,847 square meters of sold exhibit space.

“We are excited to see the industry’s growing interest in taking part in our global event, and this year’s edition promises to be the largest one ever,” Diversified Communications Group Vice President Liz Plizga said. “The growth of the event is mostly attributed to an increase in number of new participating companies and to exhibiting companies and pavilions returning with larger stand spaces.”

The 2023 edition will take place in halls 2, 3, 4, 5 and the Gallery located between halls 4 and 5 of Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via exhibition center.  Seafood Processing Global will occupy half of hall 3. The growth in exhibit space indicates this will be the largest Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global in the event’s history, reinforcing the event’s position as the most important, and diverse seafood expo in the world, according to Diversified.

Thus far, exhibitors from 80 countries have confirmed their participation in the exhibition. New representing countries not in attendance in 2022 include Austria, Barbados, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Gambia, Moldova, New Caledonia, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, and Seychelles.

Returning pavilions with significant change in size include China, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Spanish regions of Catalan and Galicia for Seafood Expo Global, and Norway for Seafood Processing Global.

Over 600 new companies will exhibit, including Atunes y Lomos, Blumar, Golden Fish Sarl, Grøntvedt Group, North Pacific Seafood Pte Ltd, Pereira Productos del Mar and Pickenpack Seafoods GmbH for Seafood Expo Global, and Activa Food Tech SAU, Aquatiq AS, Lineage Logistics, and Van de Velde Packaging Group for Seafood Processing Global.

Exhibitors will present popular and innovative seafood products – fresh, frozen, canned, value-added, processed and packaged – to seafood buyers from around the world, including representatives of supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, caterers, importers, distributors, seafood markets, and other retail and foodservice companies. Seafood Processing Global provides buyers with every aspect of seafood processing, including packaging materials and machinery, chilling and freezing equipment, primary and secondary processing systems, hygiene control and sanitation and quality assurance services.

 "[The expo] reaffirms itself as the world's leading seafood trade event and provides the industry’s global key stakeholders the platform needed to discuss strategy, innovate, and find solutions for their business,” Plizga said.