Free From/Functional Food Expo to be held in Sweden for the first time

08 August 2017 by Katherine Price

The Free From/Functional Food Expo, the only dedicated free from trade show in Europe, will be held in Sweden for the first time next year, and is also expected to be heading to London.

The Expo has previously been held in Brussels, Amsterdam and Barcelona. Organiser Expo Business Communications changes the location of the show each year, and has chosen to hold next year's show in Stockholm on 16-17 May 2018.

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The show was held in Barcelona earlier this year. More than 4,300 buyers attended the show - up 29% on 2016 - which featured more than 260 producers from 39 countries including the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Korea.

Producers included Rude Health, Nakd, Trek and BFree Foods, with products including dairy-free cheese, free from noodles, rice mayonnaise, vegan eggs and gluten- and sugar-free iced coffee.

More than 40 industry experts were part of the 2017 conference theatre line-up, highlighting the trends, challenges and opportunities in this fast developing market. Speakers from Mintel were part of the line-up this year; the company reports the free from market is currently worth £531m, and is anticipated to grow to £673m by 2020.

Ronald Holman, exhibition director, said: "We are a travelling European event, and by moving to different locations it means that we offer our exhibitors a real European profile. The majority of visitors will always come from the local markets (40-50%) and these visitors will follow us to the next editions. Furthermore, this is the only way to offer our exhibitors an entry/distribution in a new national market, or the opportunity to support their national distributors… London will soon be the next edition."