Prodeca brings a hundred companies to Gastronomic Forum Barcelona

From 18 to 20 October, Barcelona hosted the Gastronomic Forum, the major event for Catalonia's gastronomy sector, and Prodeca was there promoting the participation of up to 100 Catalan agri-food companies, in l'Espai Catalunya and organising the Catalan Wine Showroom. 

The Espai Catalunya, organised by Prodeca, the Xarxa de Productes de la Terra and Girona Excel·lent, featured 40 local producers from across the agri-food sector: meat and cured meats, fine food, oil, wine and cava, fish and seafood, and fruit and vegetables. It was a shared space of more than 100m² that met its aim of increasing the visibility and promotion of the participating Catalan producers and providing a meeting point between restaurateurs and agri-food companies. 

Live cooking area 

In addition to the exhibition stand, the Espai Catalunya had a live cooking area: 130 m² fully equipped, with a programme of 20 cooking sessions each pairing a local producer with a chef who prepared various dishes using the selected ingredients. 

Among the chefs taking part were names such as Iolanda Bustos, the flower chef, who cooked Ànec de l'Empordà products with Maria Soler; Carlos Sánchez, of Restaurant L'Avenc de Tavertet, who presented his edible mushroom dishes featuring new native species together with Carles Díaz, biologist and manager of Bolet Ben Fet; and Rafel Muria, chef at the Quatre Molins restaurant, who created new dishes using Cellers Unió extra virgin olive oil and a product very familiar to him, Muria honey. 

Catalan Wine Showroom: 60 Catalan wineries meet potential buyers

Catalan wine had its moment at Gastronomic Forum Barcelona with the Catalan Wine Showroom, a strictly business event restricted to wine sector professionals, organised by Prodeca with the collaboration of INCAVI, the Catalan Institute of Vine and Wine, as part of the second Catalan Wine Week. 

Over the three days of Gastronomic Forum Barcelona, Prodeca provided the 60 participating wineries with a meeting space of more than 350m² , with individual counters for companies to hold face-to-face B2B meetings with potential buyers from the HORECA channel, specialist shops and large-scale retail managers, and to showcase their products to chefs, sommeliers and food professionals.

The Catalan Wine Showroom was complemented by the Catalan Wine Week Classroom, a space for debate and reflection on the latest trends around vine and wine culture in Catalonia. Among the various talks and round tables with expert guests organised by INCAVI, Prodeca's managing director Ramon Sentmartí hosted the session "Catalan wine in the world. An X-ray of Catalan wine exports", with Àlex Bautista, export director at Recaredo, Adrien Sage of Diaita Hedeos and Christopher Greness, managing director of Wine Secrets Barcelona.