Today is the last day of Anuga, the world's largest food fair. Throughout the five-day event, held in Cologne, dairy giant Arla Foods has been providing visitors with an outline of the firm's vision.Value adding has been the key theme.
The company has attempted to demonstrate how it can add value to the dairy market through a raft of activities ranging from research and processing to branding. The firm believes that these will benefit consumers as well as the market as a whole.
For example, Arla's stand has been designed to make such abstract concepts more concrete. There is a café and a restaurant where chefs offer samples from the Arla Master Brand and seven other international brands to illustrate the added value strategy.
Similarly, a section of the stand dedicated to Arla Foods Innovation focuses on research and development of new dairy products. The company hopes that this will attract considerable attention. One such product is Milk Bites, which has been developed in conjunction with NASA, the US space agency, for space travel. These are available from a vending machine.
Also on display is an innovative new milk carton design, information about the sweetener Gaio tagatose and methods for research into milk with special properties. One example demonstrates, for instance, that milk taken from a cow at night contains soporific properties.
Anuga is the world's largest food fair with 6,000 exhibitors from 100 countries. The 14 halls cover a floor area of 285,000 sq m - equivalent to 28 football pitches. Over 160,000 visitors are expected to have visited the fair, which is held every other year.