Australian industry events are falling like dominoes as the coronavirus pandemic gallops through our communities. The latest casualty is foodpro 2020, scheduled for 5-8 July and now postponed to 2021, with no fixed date as yet.
Foodpro event director Jonathan Wilczek, of show owner and organiser Diversified Communications, shared the announcement with media and exhibitors today.
"After many weeks of monitoring the evolving situation around coronavirus (COVID-19), talking to the industry and consulting with our partners, we have made the difficult decision to postpone foodpro 2020," the announcement said.
Originally scheduled to run from 5-8 July, 2020, the event will now take place in 2021, in the same venue – Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.
This will make for an extremely busy event year for the packaging and processing sector in 2021, with global packaging and processing megashow interpack's new dates set for 25 Feb to 3 March; followed three weeks later by Anuga Foodtec; then giant printing show drupa, which includes a big packaging print component, from 20-30 April; AUSPACK 2021 in early May; PacPrint also in May; ProPak Asia in June; and foodpro... at a date to be announced.
The foodpro team said the decision had been "particularly difficult due to the importance of this event to our industry", but that given the recent government advice on social distancing, travel restrictions, and the logistics required before the event, postponement is unavoidable. It said the safety of all concerned remained a top priority.
The organiser said it is offering customers the option to credit any deposits towards foodpro 2021.
