{"id":23297,"date":"2025-12-11T20:07:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/the-horeca-sector-joins-forces-with-alimentaria-hostelco-to-shape-the-future-of-hospitality\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:07:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:07:34","slug":"the-horeca-sector-joins-forces-with-alimentaria-hostelco-to-shape-the-future-of-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/the-horeca-sector-joins-forces-with-alimentaria-hostelco-to-shape-the-future-of-hospitality\/","title":{"rendered":"The HORECA sector joins forces with Alimentaria + Hostelco to shape the future of hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sector has given its full support to Alimentaria + Hostelco 2026’s ambitious commitment to the HORECA channel. Spain’s leading business organizations, representing the entire ecosystem, have signed collaboration agreements to boost business opportunities, innovation, and knowledge sharing at an event that will bring together the entire foodservice, restaurant, and hospitality equipment industry. The trade show, taking place from March 23 to 26 at the Gran Via venue of Fira de Barcelona, \u200b\u200bwill feature new spaces and activities and an international conference program designed to anticipate trends and address the challenges of the future of hospitality.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Alliances with leading industry associations\u2014Hosteler\u00eda de Espa\u00f1a, FACYRE, Marcas de Restauraci\u00f3n, FEDIS HORECA, AECOC, CEHAT-ITH, and FSI, among others\u2014contribute to Alimentaria + Hostelco 2026’s comprehensive representation of the entire HORECA ecosystem, from producers and distributors to restaurateurs, hoteliers, and major brands.<\/p>\n

Among these associations, Hosteler\u00eda de Espa\u00f1a, representing over 300,000 hospitality companies, and FACYRE, representing 8,000 chefs and pastry chefs, stand out for their significant sector representation. Both will provide direct insights into market needs and reinforce the gastronomic and innovative dimension of the fair. FEDIS HORECA, which brings together more than 920 distribution companies, will hold its National Convention for the first time at Alimentaria + Hostelco, solidifying the event as the channel’s premier meeting point. These organizations are also part of the Hostelco & Restaurama Organizing Committee, participating in the strategy and content definition, as well as guiding the work areas, thus ensuring that the program is fully aligned with market realities.<\/p>\n

According to J. Antonio Valls, CEO of Alimentaria Exhibitions, \u201cAlimentaria + Hostelco not only gives visibility to the sector, but it was born from within the sector itself. Our mission is to support companies in their growth, be their platform for international projection, and their meeting point for innovation and business.\u201d<\/p>\n

New spaces for innovation<\/p>\n

Of particular note, the HORECA industry will have spaces at the 2026 edition specifically designed to address the sector’s needs, catalyze innovation in hospitality, and explore future trends in food, gastronomy, and foodservice, such as The Horeca Hub, which represents the largest innovation and business platform for Horeca professionals. This space will anticipate trends, analyze challenges, and generate new operating models to inspire the entire industry.<\/p>\n

The Horeca Hub will be a forum to discuss the transformation of the sector, with content tailored to specific audiences within the channel, as well as various showcookings, international meetings, and high-value-added activities focused on sustainability, digitalization, food safety, product innovation, and new consumer demands.<\/p>\n

Within The Horeca Hub, this year’s major new feature is The Shift: a space where industry leaders will meet to analyze and anticipate the changes transforming the industry.<\/p>\n

Top-Tier International Lineup<\/p>\n

One of the key aspects of the upcoming edition will be its strong international focus, extensively showcased at the Imagine Foodservice Europe congress, developed in conjunction with Marcas de Restauraci\u00f3n, an organization representing over 170 restaurant brands in Spain.<\/p>\n

International experts will address the major challenges facing the Horeca channel and the value of branded restaurants. These include experts such as Alexandre Simon, CEO of Burger King France, and Jo\u00e3o Almeida, Market Leader Iberia & Head of M&A Pan Europe at YUM! Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell) will delve into the evolution of quick service. David Portalain, Vice President of Food Industry Advisor at Circana USA, will present the trends redefining the international restaurant market, while Henry McGovern, co-founder of the investment firm McWin, will address the keys to scaling a brand globally.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Luis Comas, CEO of AMREST, will discuss the evolution of the Organized Full Service Restaurant (FSR) market and its trends. The future of the delivery channel and the application of AI in organized catering will also have their own dedicated sessions at the Imagine Food Service conference, with speakers such as Zhong Xu, Global CEO of Deliverect, and Silvia Leal, an international expert in trends and technology, respectively.<\/p>\n

Another new feature of this edition will be the celebration of the First Alimentaria International Cooking Championship, sponsored by Alimentos de Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

This will be the first international professional team cooking competition organized in Spain under the global standards of the World Association of Chefs Societies, which represents more than 12 million chefs in 110 countries. The HORECA Awards 2026 will also be presented. Now in their eighth edition, these awards have become the leading recognition of the HORECA, foodservice, and retail ecosystem in Spain, bringing together the industry’s main innovations and developments.<\/p>\n

Connecting Industry and the Hospitality of the Future<\/p>\n

Alimentaria+Hostelco, organized by Alimentaria Exhibitions, a Fira de Barcelona company, expects to have around 3,300 exhibiting companies, occupying 100,000 m\u00b2 of net exhibition space across 7 pavilions, practically the entire Gran Via venue at Fira de Barcelona. The event, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, expects to receive more than 110,000 professional visitors, 25% of them international, reaffirming its leadership as the main platform for promoting business, internationalization and networking.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sector has given its full support to Alimentaria + Hostelco 2026’s ambitious commitment to the HORECA channel. Spain’s leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1097],"tags":[1485,1100],"class_list":["post-23297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anafric-en","tag-alimentaria-en","tag-anafric-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anafric.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}