From 21 to 24 March 2023 the IEC "Expocentre" hosted for the 28th time the international specialized trade fair for the bakery and confectionery industry Modern Bakery Moscow | Confex. This year, 179 exhibitors from 9 countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Vietnam, Germany, Italy, China, Russia, Turkey and the Czech Republic presented their technological and raw materials solutions at one of the most significant business events in the industry. The loyal participants of the trade fair included well-known foreign and Russian brands: Abat, Buhler, Debag, Handtmann, Lesaffre, Memak, Polair, Rondo, Tecnopool, Wiesheu, Angel Yeast Rus, Begarat, Berta, JSC SPE Firm, Makiz-Ural, SEMZ, JSC Machine-Building Plant Shebekinsky. First-time participants were Forma Makina, Hi-Road, Mirpain, Özköseoğlu, Ozti Bakeware, Qingdao Kesong, Tan Nhat Huong, Wuxi Bakeware, ForGenika, JLLC Aromatik, JSC KHP "Tikhoretsky", LLC "LIGA-PACK", MP-Technologies, Rokintehinvest, Tomsk Production Company "SAVA", CJSC "SK "Leningradsky", Trading House "Food Technologies", Tulatorgtechnika, etc. This year with the support of Export Support Center of the Krasnodar Region, the exhibition also presented technologies and equipment of Kuban companies: Krasnodar Plant of Boiler and Power Equipment, companies Lewant-Rus and Liga-Pack.

Despite the changing situation in the world and in the industry, the exhibitors were looking forward to the fair to present highly demanded technological solutions for the bakery and confectionery, showcase their brands, find new business contacts and discuss issues of assortment, logistics, labeling, packaging, as well as business process restructuring. The entire industry community praised the importance of this exhibition and joint work.

Such thematic areas as food technologies for bakery and confectionery industries, ingredients, raw materials and additives, equipment for packaging, storage and equipping of retail spaces, refrigeration equipment, technologies for industrial hygiene, commercial transport were presented at the trade fair.

This year, for the second time Modern Bakery Moscow hosted the exposition of technologies and innovations for chocolate and sugar confectionery industry "Confex. Confectionery Expertise", which ranks were joined by new foreign exhibitors: Alke Machinery, Girisim Makina, Keskin Makina, Omaks and other companies.

13592 industry professionals from 21 countries, 8 federal districts, 79 regions of the Russian Federation visited the fair.

What’s new at the trade fair this year

For the first time, a roundtable "Automation and dispatching of engineering systems of bread factories buildings" was held. Experts discussed the modernization of engineering systems and methods to reduce operating costs at bakery plants. The organizer was the Russian Bakers Union (RBU).

For the first time at the exhibition, Research Institute of Bakery Industry presented an "On-site laboratory", which carried out tests on product samples of the flour milling and bakery enterprises as well as ingredients producers. Booth visitors were able to get a glance at how the Lab determined the presence of allergens in raw materials and finished products, and the amount of gluten - in gluten–free products.

Heads and representatives of trade missions of such countries as Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Turkey visited the trade fair this year. The delegates emphasized the interest in Russian manufacturers products presented at the trade fair and the expansion of trade relations between the countries.

The delegation of manufacturers from Belarus visited the exhibitors’ stands: 53 top managers of bakery and confectionery enterprises.

Abat: "The trade fair is action-packed, which never ceases to delight. Thanks to the organizers for this opportunity, for the customers who are ready to perceive something new."

Alke Machinery: "We are taking part in the trade fair for the first time. It is interesting for us that there is a thematic exposition for confectionery industry here, since we are manufacturers of equipment for confectionery market. This trade fair is more specialized and professional – it is definitely an advantage for us." 

Lesaffre: "A lot of visitors with plenty professional inquires. So many master classes, that everyone will find a relevant topic and idea for developing."

Polo AG: "There is a lot of partners at the trade fair: both existing and new ones. Negotiations are going well, we are very satisfied. The trade fair is extremely important for maintaining contacts with customers, as well as opening up new business opportunities. Each time after the exhibition we open new directions for development."

Rusimex: "There is a lot of visitors. We also had a lot of negotiations and on the first day of the trade fair we concluded a large number of deals. The whole team and I are very happy. Here we can talk to clients face–to–face, understand what their pain is, how they live - now it is very important."

 Thomas Halpin, founder of Layerz Bakery: "I was amazed by the scale of the trade fair. A lot of equipment, events, workshops are going on at the trade fair. I have learned a lot of new things, have seen the technologies that I want to use within my production. For me, it is an event that establishes a connection between consumers and producers."

New business program at Modern Bakery Moscow | Confex

With the participation and support of partners, the business program of Modern Bakery Moscow | Confex attracts more and more professionals of the bakery and confectionery industry.

34 events (14 business events and 20 master classes) were held during this year’s trade fair.

For the third time the international business forum for owners and top-managers of confectionery enterprises “Confex. Confectionery expertise”  took place on 21 to 22 March 2023                      

Business owners discussed the key trends of the confectionery market in 2023, challenges and problems of the industry, import substitution of ingredients and equipment for confectionery industry, perspective markets for the export of confectionery products, as well as methods of increasing labor productivity at confectionery enterprises. A separate session was devoted to the supplier-network interaction, as well as the new realities of food retail and the e-grocery market. During the session "Anti-crisis marketing, branding and packaging", confectionery manufacturers shared their experience in promoting confectionery products in new reality, creating packaging for products promoting online and developing a marketing strategy for entering the market with new products.

The event was attended by 417 professionals. Top managers of Lenta, SberMarket, Ferrero, The Slavyanka group of companies, Confectionary factory "Sladonezh", United Confectioners Company Ltd, Confectionery Factory Essen, KONTI-RUS JSC, Mojo Cacao, Vivachoco and Vanyushkin's Sweets Confectionery factory, “Belyov Pastila” LLC, Confectionery factory "Fidelity to quality", LLC “Confectionery Factory“ Volshebnitsa ”, Confectionary LLC “V.A.Sh. SHOKOLATE+”, Confectionery factory "Pobeda" , U Palych brand, Bezhitsky Food Processing Plant OJSC, OJSC BELOGORYE Confectionery factory and other companies, all met in one place.

Evgeny Leibovich, general director of the Confectionary factory "Sladonezh", said, "For me, such events are not only an interest in speakers, but also professional communication with colleagues, which allows us to develop solutions in the current market conditions jointly."

Pavel Kuzyakov, co-founder of Vanyushkin's Sweets Confectionery factory, founder of the Vivachoco chocolate factory, said, "I liked the event, gained a few insights that I’m going to implement in my own business. It was quite informative and interesting."

Kirill Lebedev, head of the department of Confectionery factory "Pobeda", said, "It is a very interesting conference. I liked the audience – very professional, I also liked the speakers. The event was fascinating. We were impressed by the professionalism of the team that developed the trade fair, and by the professionalism of the audience."

On March 21-23, 2023, the training course for specialists of the bakery and confectionery industry "School for Modern Baker & Confectioner ProIngredienty "Use of ingredients and confectionery products" was held. In the framework of the lecture block, workshops and laboratory sessions, participants received comprehensive information on standardization, identification and labeling of bakery and confectionery products, usage of food ingredients and control of finished products. According to the results of professional training, 68 graduates received state diplomas and certificates of completion of the course. This course was developed and prepared by the scientific partners of the trade fair: Food Ingredients Producers Union, Research Institute of the Bakery Industry, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Federal Scientific Center for Food Systems named after V.M. Gorbatov, FRC of nutrition and biotechnology.

On March 21, 2023, the symposium "Bread is the basis of a healthy diet" was held, organized by the International Industrial Academy. Participants discussed such topics as characteristics of bread for children nutrition in schools and raising a generation of loyal consumers.

On March 21, 2023, the workshop "Retail purchases bread" was held. The event included an analytical session on markets and customers, a discussion panel with retail representatives and negotiations between suppliers and buyers. The organizer of the event was LLC "Vatel Consulting".

On March 22-23, the conference "Own production as a competitive advantage of a retail network" took place for the second time. Speakers from Magnit, Komandor Holding, X5 Ready Food, Gurmanika and other Russian retailers shared field analytics and data on customer behavior when choosing cooking and packaged prepared food, shared how to increase the average retail check at, how not to lose buyers with the trend of economical behavior and gain their trust. Heads of manufacturing companies and factories-kitchens learned what kind of prepared food is the future, as well as what ingredients innovations and technologies emerged recently. The organizer was a retail industry portal Retail.ru.

On March 22, 2023, the symposium "PRO bread" (organizer - Research Institute of the Bakery Industry) and the briefing "From the point of creation to systematic implementation" (organizer - RBU) were held. Within the events, experts discussed trends in the bread manufacturing, features of the implementation of the federal state information systems "Grain" at bakery enterprises, flour quality problems, new state standards, as well as the best practices for popularizing bread.

On March 22, the solemn award ceremony of the XIV All-Russian Competition "The Best Bread of Russia - 2023" took place, at which 161 samples of bread and bakery products from 31 enterprises from 20 regions of the Russian Federation were presented. The organizers were RBU and the International Industrial Academy.

On March 23, an event for the owners of bakeries, confectioneries and restaurants, a public talk "Business of bakeries and patisseries", was held for the second time. Within the event, business owners shared their experience, anti-crisis ideas, and also discussed the perspectives for the development of the bakery and confectionery market in Russia. Speakers were: Thomas Halpin, founder of Layerz Bakery, Maya chef; Alexander Vasiliev, head of a bakery chain Khlebnik (90 bakeries in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Region and Veliky Novgorod); Oksana Kuznetsova, co-owner and brand chef of La Poste bakery; Oleg Borodin, founder of the bakery "Familnaja Pekarnya" and "Pizza Gus" chains; Natalia Kononova, creator and owner of the bakery "Vkusnije privichki from Natalia Kononova" and restaurants "Khleb Da Vinci'K"; Alexander Kurella, founder of BioBrot; Lisa Batt, pastry chef, brand chef at NIQA pâtisserie & cafe; Alla Komissarova, founder and CEO of chocolate and confectionery studio "La Princesse Choco"; Akhmed Ali-zade, owner of the bakery "Zerno" in Perm, etc.

Alexander Kurella, founder of the BioBrot bakery, said, “Modern Bakery Moscow | Confex, and especially public talk, is the place where you can come, watch, gain experience, learn successful cases of other enterprises and apply these strategies in your company. This trade fair and event are worth their weight in gold.”

Oleg Borodin, founder of the bakery "Familnaja Pekarnya" and "Pizza Gus": Modern Bakery Moscow | Confex is almost the only trade fair that is a must-see for all bakeries owners. There is no cooler trade fair! The public talk is a platform for exchanging useful experience as the organizers choose professionals in their field as speakers..”

Olga Kuznetsova, co-owner and brand chef of La Poste bakery, said, “Events like this one lead to a market situation where many cool projects coexist and support each other within the industry community. The public talk is a place where large companies can share their experience, and start-ups can draw on it and adopt ideas for their business.”

On March 23, an open meeting of the Business Club "Best Regional Practices of Russian National Bakery" on the topic "Bakery in Russia: the present and future of the industry" was held. The experts discussed measures of state support for the development of bakery enterprises, new laws in the field of waste management, perspective trends in small bakery business, and features of consumer demand in 2023.

The strategic session was devoted to the analysis of cases of bakery enterprises. Using the example of the development of successful brands, N.E. Volkov (Marketing Director of JSC "Karavai") shared the experience of launching a new brand of jellied bread on the market. CEO of JSC "Smak" Fufarov V.V. told about the launch of a new production – the plant of the future of the company "Smak". K.S. Brovko, CEO of JSC "Baker And Confectioner Combine" (Kirov) shared the experience of implementing automated accounting in the grain expedition of JSC "BCC" in terms of shipment of 35 tons of bakery products per day and 100 SQU to 1200 retail outlets, with an expedition area of 1500 sq. m., with a maximum route length of up to 850 km. The organizer of the event was St. Petersburg Institute of Management and Food Technology.

On the final day of the trade fair, a seminar "Baking business in questions and answers" was held by Konstantin Malkov, owner of Bakerai bakery chain. The speaker shared with the audience where to get new ideas for the development of the bakery and how to competently expand the assortment.

The visitors were particularly interested in the practical part of the trade fair – master classes. Within 4 days, the masters of bakery and confectionery industry held 20 master classes for 1852 listeners. Master classes were devoted to working with chocolate and sweets, creating conceptual desserts and non-standard food combinations, new technologies for working with yeast, puff pastry, sourdough and brewed bread, trends in baking and confectionery, increasing the cost of finished products and other relevant issues.

Hosts of master classes are acknowledged bakery and pastry chefs:

• Alexander Bakanov, pastry chef of the restaurants Kislovsky and Black Thai, brand chef of the confectionery chain Tatlım (Istanbul)

• Ali-zade Akhmed, bakery chef of classic baking and Viennese baking

• Alla Borisova, chief technologist of the Scientific Research Institute of the Bakery Industry with more than 40 years of experience in baking

• Anna Gribanova, brand chef of the bakery “Khlebnij Dvor”

• Anton Isenin, bakery chef of ASTER cafe and René cafe

• Asya Motina, author of the book "Gluten-free bread" and a course at the online school hleb.club

• Alyona Ofitserova, pastry chef of the restaurant Greeks and Blondie (Pinsky&Co)

• Vitaly Lunin, Denis Mosolov, Dmitry Sosunov, specialists of LLC "SAF-NEVA"

• Lisa Batt, pastry chef, brand chef of NIQA pâtisserie & café

• Marina Sinitskaya, creator of the cake shows

• Olga Peniosa, international consultant, pastry chef and chocolatier

• Polina Andrianova, bakery chef of the bakery “Pechorin”

• Sergey Fetisov, chief technologist of the company CSM Ingredients

• Yulia Posazhennikova, pastry chef of the restaurant BURO.TSUM, which received a recommendation from the Michelin guide and other experts.

What else left?

For the third time, the format of a video interview within the video studio "Modern Bakery ON-AIR" became available to participants and visitors of the exhibition. Video interviews with exhibitors, speakers, hosts of master classes and visitors of the exhibition will be available for viewing soon on the official YouTube channel of the trade fair.

The trade fair was supported by

The State Duma of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Moscow Government.  

The trade fair is held with the support of Russian Bakers Union, National Bread Bakers Union, Food Ingredients Producers Union, industry institutes – Research Institute of the Bakery Industry, International Industrial Academy, All-Russian Research Institute of Confectionery Industry, Russian leading universities of food industry: St. Petersburg Institute of Management and Food Technology, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

Click Here to access the Post Show Report