The 25th ‘Siberian Food products’ exhibition has completed its work.

Nowadays it is really hard to find a person who does not like tasty food. But if food is healthy, it will have a beneficial effect on health. Such products were presented by manufacturers at the Sibexpocenter at the traditional exhibition ‘Siberian Food products’. The exhibition has completed its work, but it is impossible not to note the variety of products that were presented at the stands of the participants, the quality of the goods, amazing new products and a real celebration that was arranged for the guests of the exhibition.

All the exhibition days were full of business activities – participants of round tables discussed urgent problems of an industry. On the second day of the exhibition the Ministry of Agriculture of the Irkutsk Region and regional enterprises of the food and processing industry organized presentation ‘Proper nutrition from local producers’. The main task of presentation is to know consumers' requests for the production and supply of quality and healthy products. It was important to discuss new trends of market and the fact that enterprises search for new markets in our region.

On the third day of the exhibition, representatives of the Ministry of agriculture held another round table discussion on the implementation of the HACCP system in food and processing enterprises. HACCP is a management system that allows us to restructure the work of enterprises in such a way as to exclude the production of low-quality products. The speakers raised questions about how successful the development experience of implementing these systems was.

The last day of the exhibition was dedicated to the ‘Development of harvesting and processing of wild food raw materials and medicinal plants’. Our region is very rich in wild-growing raw materials. There are a lot of pine nuts, herbs, berries, mushrooms. In this regard, in our region there are several companies that are engaged in this sphere, and already have the right to use the brand ‘Products of Angara region’. Organizers invited enterprisers - manufacturers from Ust-Ilimsk, Baikalsk, Angarsk and Tulun to present their products. The event provided an opportunity to meet with future partners and discuss issues relating to the procurement, supply and processing of raw materials.

In addition to round tables and meetings, the Ministry of Agriculture organized the traditional tasting competition ‘Irkutsk Novelty’, at which local enterprises presented new products. The professional tasting Commission gave its assessment to the products. The main criterion - of course, is the quality of the product. The Ministry of agriculture of the Irkutsk region awarded golden awards to companies.

One if the main exhibition event is ‘Products of Angara region’, which is held on the territory of Sibexpocentre for the second year in a row. It unites 44 commodity producers, 25 of which were presented at the exhibition. The event allows to organize a meeting of consumers and customers at one site, allows manufacturers to present their new quality products and share experiences. In the framework of the 'Products of Angara region' event, which was organized by the Ministry of agriculture of the Irkutsk region, culinary Studio "Anette" together with Sibexpocentre held a master class with the participation of Irkutsk restaurants. Chefs of 'Annette', 'Old Cafe', Syr v masle', ‘Sobranie Spechilova’ restaurants demonstrated their dishes. They made a real show on cooking restaurant dishes from local products. This show attracted the attention of a lot of guests. Entertaining programme continued with performances of creative teams.

Another interesting event was the competition ‘RasKOLBAS from Komsomolskaya Pravda’. Four young people from the audience decided to participate in the speeding sausage championship. Maxim Ivanov, who was already a prize-winner last year, won again. Within the framework of the championship, ‘Sayansky Broiler’ LLC, ‘Belorechenskoe’ OJSC, ‘Buryatmyasprom’ LLC gave theit products for tasting. Program debutant Irina Karavaeva offered a variety of flavored tea for testing. Chef of grill-bar ‘Picnic’ held a master-class on cooking sausages according to a special recipe, after which everyone could try this exquisite dish.

Within the framework of the exhibition for the first time the Ministry of agriculture held a cheese contest for local producers at which visitors of the event tasted varieties of cheese, giving their vote to the most delicious and best. In the category ‘Adygei cheese’ the victory was given to JSC ‘Siberian field’, and in the categories ‘mozzarella’ and ‘Cheeses in assortment’ the first place was taken by LLC ‘Irkutsk cheese Maker’. JSC ‘Belorechenskoe’, SPK ‘Oka’, LLC ‘Irkutsk maslozhirkombinat’, IP TOPTUN. Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Irkutsk Region Vyacheslav Kozin noted:

After the competition there was an ‘Easter celebration’. Interesting concert program attracted a lot of people. On the eve of the greatest holiday, artists sang song and danced. At the master-classes people were taught how to paint Easter eggs and cakes.

At the closing ceremony, Vyacheslav Kozin summed up the results of the exhibition: - We have been actively working for four days: we held ‘products of Angara region’ event, master-classes and concert. We also held three round tables, on which we discussed current problems. For the first time we held competition of cheese producers. This is a very interesting experience, I hope we will continue to do such events. Especially we would like to thank companies that present agro industrial complex of Irkutsk region. Also on behalf of Ministry I would like to thank ‘Sibexpocentre’ for organizing of the event.

At the closing ceremony, special words of gratitude for the high level of organization, holding the exhibition and the business program were expressed to the Minister of Agriculture of the Irkutsk Region, Ilya Sumarokov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Vyacheslav Kozin, Head of the Department of Food, Processing Industry and Sales of Products of the Ministry of Agriculture Irina Remezova.

More than 70 exhibitors from different cities took part in this ‘tasty’ exhibition. They really impressed visitors. They presented high-quality products with a very amazing smell. Exhibitors attracted a lot of visitors, who got acquainted with the new products, conducted tastings and purchased products they liked.

It is important to note that the ‘Siberian food products’ exhibition is an integral part in the development of the industrial sector: local manufacturers manage to demonstrate their new products manufactured using the latest technologies, discuss exciting issues and outline future plans.