Seafood Processing America (SPA), held in conjunction with the International Boston Seafood Show (IBSS), opens its doors on 20 March for three days.
The exhibition covers equipment, services and technology ‘for getting seafood from dock to market’. It is the largest show of its kind in North America.
On display will be processing machinery, refrigeration systems and freezing equipment, transportation, warehousing, packaging services and equipment, plus information and systems for quality control, logistics, computer/information technology and finance.
Seafood Processing America will be held at the Boston Convention & Exposition Center in the Seaport district of Boston where it was launched in March 2005 when the long-running International Boston Seafood Show moved there from the smaller Hynes Convention Center. The two fisheries shows are now co-located with the New England Food Show, said to be the largest regional trade event serving the foodservice and retail markets.
“Launching SPA presented an opportunity to highlight the equipment, transportation, packaging and services for seafood,” says Mary Larkin, group vice-president/publisher for Diversified Business Communications, which owns and runs both the Boston and Brussels seafood shows. “It allowed greater focus for marketing both the event and the exhibitors within the event to their target buyers.
“It truly is a microcosm of the industry. As US processing moved overseas, this was reflected within SPA with many of the companies exhibiting focusing on the entire global market (attendance to IBSS and SPA comes from over 80 countries), or just on the US market. Growth slowed but that seems to be changing with more growth in the equipment, packaging and services focus of the event.
“There are many attendees who come just specifically for SPA and as many of the potential customers are actually exhibitors, the decision makers within the seafood booths take time to compare products and make purchasing decisions at the show. Quite often, equipment on display is sold on the show floor."
According to Larkin, there are typically around 170 companies exhibiting in SPA annually, although for 2011 this has increased to around 190 companies, she says. “Some companies exhibit to target the South American and Canadian attendees in particular.
“Adding SPA to IBSS has allowed companies to bring more staff who are specific to the processing side of the business. It also allows the entire production line and finished product to be displayed under one roof.”
A full list of exhibitors is posted on the Seafood Processing America website, although as we went to press there was no information on the website about what these companies would be exhibiting.
However, major seafood processing equipment manufacturer Marel will be represented at SPA by the recently established Marel Seattle (formerly Carnitech Seattle). On its stand it will be featuring a variety of equipment, including its RevoPortioner low-pressure former, the Geba SC 250 MA Multi Angle slicer, which is claimed to be the fastest machine on the market for slicing fresh salmon, and the I-Cut 10 PortionCutter high-speed portioning machine.
Also included will be its Innova software, which covers the complete production cycle, and is claimed to enable processors to optimise profits and overall production performance.
