By “Mithran” Sri Ram A.N.
Bakery products have become a regular food in most part of the world and are essential commodities today. There is a high potential for business growth in selling bakery products. TAMIL NADU BAKERS FEDERATION (TNBF) is an organization actively run by professionals in the baking Industry. TNBF’s main aim is to promote the baking industry by sharing technical & trade knowledge amongst its members. Additionally, TNBF also acts as a liaison with various organizations, involved in food processing, both governmental and private located in India and elsewhere. They are now organizing their 5th Edition of INDIA BAKERY EXPO 22, scheduled to be held between 9th – 11th September 2022 at Chennai Trade Centre. It will be a B2B Trade Fair for Bakery Industry and is poised to return stronger, bigger and a comprehensive platform in the fast changing face of the bakery industry in South India.
P.P. Subramaniam, Secretary, TNBF & organizer of India Bakery Expo 22 talks in length about the importance, highlights, benefits for participants and much more.
“India Bakery Expo 22 is done by Tamil Nadu Bakers Federation, which is the parental body for entire Tamil Nadu. All district associations will come under this. We give support to all the people associated to the bakery industry in their production, purchase etc., During Covid times, the Govt has given permission only to open restaurants & not bakery. But, we from our federation explained that bakery products will be useful than the restaurant product & on accepting our request TN govt had permitted to open bakery shops. We were supplying bread & bread products, so during pandemic times, our products became a sample food for the entire country.
This is the 5th edition. The objective of this expo is to promote our industry & upgrade our product. We want more people to come to our industry & get technically qualified. In many rural areas, bakeries were mixed with restaurants along with sweets & savories. Even big companies have started this way now. This is purely a B2B exhibition where mostly all bakery owners walk in to upgrade, develop and see the latest trend in the market. This type of expos are available only in overseas like Germany, Australia or China. We want to do a similar type in Chennai for T.N, and want all south Indian baker to come and attend this expo. There was always improvement year after year for the past 4 editions, and this 5th edition has also have large developments on stock. We expect around 150 exhibitors to participate, with at least 15,000 + visitors exclusively from bakery segment. There is a demo area where our expertise people exhibit and tell the latest trends. This expo is conducted in a non-profitable way. Same tariff is maintained from the beginning, thus helping the brands to succeed.
Benefits for the participants are huge. Different visionary companies are going to come up with their stalls. Now there is a ban on plastic. Latest packing material people are on board. Latest machinery manufacturers find a place here. Many works are not labour oriented & machines play a predominant role here. All those manufacturers will be part of this expo. Trends in the industry are changing day by day. Cooking cutting machine, cake droplers, sheeted machine, oven, lot of many readymade products have come for baking and lot of pre mix have come. All will be part of this expo. If we want a good egg less cake – lot of pre mix have come. More and more home bakers are now converting into commercial bakers. All these current trends will be the attraction for this expo.
Booth space, and facilities given to the participants are awesome. A Demo space is available. The participants can place the orders for any machinery then and there directly with the manufacturers. That is the main reason, we want all the bakery manufacturer should attend the expo. Digital media promotions are done currently. However, in TN alone 20,000 + organized and unorganized bakeries are there. Even 50% of people form Tamilnadu itself, & some from Kerala, Andhra, the expo will become a huge success. International Brands like Bunge (Formerly Hindustan Lever), Food Fat Fertilizers, Williams, Chamundi Machinary Manufacturer, Arun Engineering are all part of the exhibitors in this expo. We organize a separate security set up of our own, even though we have generators for alternate power supply, a separate electricity line is taken, exclusive ambulance and fire service and on the last day once the expo is over, the movement of the machinery will be certified by us and only after that it will be sent out from the premise.
Subramaniam speaks on some interesting inputs about specific queries on the food industry. A question about developing a bread that doesn’t require yeast, he opines, it is a very old practice, but today the entire product is based on the yeast it is no wrong. On Vegetarian diet, he says “ours is 100% vegetarian and only some of the confectionary products we use egg. Equally cakes, have come egg less now. That’s how the technology had improvised now.
On Hybrid bakery products and its relevant to this expo, he opines “this expo will be a good platform for these products to have the latest trends of new type of technology and lot of bread brands have come. Before, breads were made out of maida, and today 100% multi grain breads, garlic bread, are all available now. We cannot say we can make a healthy product but we cannot declare it.
Food wastage is an alarming issue now which forces many manufacturers to go for frozen products where shelf life is more. He says “That is the current trend. It has come now even in bakery products. Pizza is coming to Domino as a frozen product. In Blast Freezer, the life of the cake is improved. Even frozen puff plates have come now and many bakeries are started buying it. It should be the next trend. Even though some issues might come, it can be sorted out easily.
On the whole, he says, “this expo will definitely be a platform for small bakers, home bakers to establish their business. By attending our expos, with few imported small equipments, home bakers are buying those equipments, prepare from their homes and deliver to their customers. Couple of home bakers have latter converted themselves into main stream bakers.
Ultimately, India Bakery Expo 22 is the premier destination for bakery business owners to succeed in business, and to constantly learn about new things, evaluate, and look for ways to improve.