Barcelona Wine Week will return to Fira de Barcelona from 5 to 7 February 2024 to showcase the country’s largest range of quality wines and do so with more cellars and more big international buyers. With a spectacular stand signing pace, the industry has once again shown its commitment to BWW as the benchmark trade show in quality Spanish wine.
Barcelona Wine Week has again broken records in its 2024 edition. It will fill Hall 8 of the Montjuïc venue of Fira Barcelona once again and the forecast is to top 850 exhibiting wineries, 70 quality seals in representation and 6,700 m2 of exhibition space, 8% more than its previous edition.
For the president of Barcelona Wine Week and the D.O. Cava, Javier Pagés, “being close to sold-out 8 months from the trade show, with an incredibly high rate of companies who are repeat participant, proves that BWW offers real business opportunities and is effective in reaching new strategic and future markets.”
Beyond the success of attracting exhibitors, BWW has positioned itself as the benchmark show for quality Spanish wines for international agents. Its director, Celine Pérez, notes that the surveys made to participants at the previous edition reflect that “more than 90% of exhibitors and 96% of visitor consider the trade show to have met their expectations as a business and promotional platform.”
For the 2024 edition, once again all kinds of wineries will be coming together: from the smallest to the best-known brands on the market, offering a unique journey through the different wine-producing areas of Spain. The exhibition space will be divided into three main areas: BWW Lands, which will bring together the wineries organised by Designations of Origin and other quality seals, BWW Brands, with wineries, groups, distributors and producer associations and BWW Complements & Tech, with companies offering equipment, accessories and services.
More business opportunities
For its upcoming edition, BWW also hopes to increase the number of large international buyers invited by the organisation to 650, 50 more than 2023. The invitee programme, developed through a collaboration agreement with ICEX Spain, will contact the big purchase deciders and importers from strategic countries for Spanish wine, such as the United States, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, China, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Mexico or Japan. BWW will be providing them with an online platform which the expectation of scheduling more than 11,400 business meetings between international buyers and exhibiting wineries, some one thousand more meetings than 2023.
Along with the goal of diversifying international markets, the organisation works alongside the industry to the meet the challenge of spurring demand on the home front, so it will also have several programmes to invite domestic buyers. All in all, BWW 2024 hopes to surpass the 20,000 professional visitors, 20% international from over 80 countries, who came to the previous edition.
Debate on the industry’s challenges
The BWW 2024 activity programme will once again include experts, critics, Masters of Wine, sommeliers, and featured producers in the wine world today. In addition to the one-of-a-kind tastings and bar serving a wide range of vintages, the trade show’s activities will take on the great challenges and macrotrends of the industry. These include innovation, internationalisation, sustainability and the growth of wine/gastro tourism.
BWW has an Organising Committee that represents almost the entire industry in Spain. Chaired by Javier Pagés, also president of the DO Cava, with the participation of José Miguel Herrero, General Director of Food Industry of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA); María Naranjo, Director of Food, Wine and Gastronomy of ICEX Spain Export and Investment; José Luis Benítez, General Director of the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV); Valentí Roqueta, President of the Catalan Wine Association (AVC); and David Palacios, President of the Spanish Conference of viticultural regulatory Councils (CECRV); among other prominent personalities from the institutional and business spheres.
Finally, in its ongoing dialogue with the industry, BWW will be found at the 44th World Conference of Vine and Wine, promoted by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food, from 5th to 9th June in Jerez, Cádiz.
Barcelona, 24 May 2023
Susana Santamaria
ssantamaria@alimentaria.com