SIAL SHANGHAI 2027

Event dates: May 2027
Location: Shanghai, China
Exhibitors: 5,000 companies from 75 countries
Visitors: over 180,000 professionals from 125 countries

Specialisation and uniqueness: China is the world’s largest food importer, and SIAL Shanghai is the only venue where all this demand is concentrated in one place. The exhibition was founded in 2000 as the Asian branch of the Paris SIAL and, over a quarter of a century, has become Asia’s largest food exhibition — not just in name, but in real figures: 200,000 square metres of exhibition space, over 40,000 participating companies and more than a million trade visitors throughout its history.

But the key factor that sets SIAL Shanghai apart from any other trade fair is the nature of the market itself, to which it provides access. China’s food imports amount to hundreds of billions of dollars annually, and decisions on which products will end up on the shelves of chains such as CR Vanguard, Hema or RT-Mart are made precisely by the buyers who attend SIAL Shanghai. At the same time, Chinese business differs fundamentally from its European counterpart: no serious importer will sign a contract with a supplier they have never met in person. SIAL Shanghai is a platform where this barrier can be overcome in a single day at the stand.

The exhibition’s supporting programme is structured around several key formats. SIAL Innovation — an international food innovation competition; in 2025, over 600 products were submitted, of which an independent jury selected 134; the prize here is not a trophy for the shelf, but guaranteed interest from buyers even before negotiations begin. The SIAL Global Food Industry Summit brings together over 400 industry leaders and sets the agenda for the Asian food trade for the coming year. The Match Me AI system operates separately, precisely matching suppliers with qualified buyers even before the exhibition opens, turning three days in Shanghai into three days of concrete negotiations.

The profile of visitors to SIAL Shanghai is reason enough to attend the exhibition. 180,000 professionals from 125 countries, and not a single one of them is there just to have a look: importers and wholesale distributors, buyers from retail chains, HoReCa managers, and food production technologists on the hunt for new raw materials. At the same time, the Chinese context adds a category of visitors not found at any European exhibition: buyers from e-commerce platforms — JD.com, Alibaba, Pinduoduo — for whom the shelf exists online, and whose purchasing volumes are on a par with traditional retail. For a Ukrainian manufacturer accustomed to targeting supermarkets as the final point of sale, this is a fundamentally different scale of conversation.

For Ukrainian manufacturers, SIAL Shanghai 2027 is a trade fair with a clear rationale for participation: either you are already trading with Asia and looking for new channels, or you are planning to enter this market and need a solid first foothold. There are virtually no other ways to reach Chinese buyers that would deliver such results in such a short time.

Participants of the Ukrainian business delegation at Sial China 2019