Baking&Snack - June 2014 - 105

SPECIAL REPORT
Modern Bakery Moscow

From Russia with Trade
BEMA's pavilion at leading bakery expo in Moscow
helps members open doors to international business.

by Laurie Gorton
The mission wasn't a secret one, nor was it impossible.
On the contrary, it proved quite successful and opened
new trade connections between American bakery suppliers and Russian bakers at Modern Bakery Moscow,
April 23-26. BEMA, the American association representing baking industry machinery and materials suppliers,
operated a pavilion at the show held at the Expocenter
Fairgrounds in Moscow that attracted more than 15,000
visitors from 43 countries.
Becoming more involved in international trade shows
leads BEMA's strategic plan. "We are actively helping
members go international," explained Kerwin Brown,
the association's president and CEO. Last year, it picked
events held in two BRIC countries. Mr. Brown evaluated
a trade fair in China, while Jerry Kallman, president of
Kallman Associates, Inc., Waldwick, NJ, attended one in
Russia. Kallman Associates organizes BEMA's participation at iba, the large German bakery show in Munich.
"Together, we decided that Modern Bakery Moscow offered the best opportunity," Mr. Brown said.
Seven BEMA companies bought booths in the
BEMA Pavilion, although one withdrew shortly before
the event. "Even so, we met our objectives," Mr. Brown
observed. The participants were Auto-Bake, Pty. Ltd.,
Hornsby, Australia; Bettendorf Stanford, Inc., Salem, IL;
Bundy Baking Solutions, Urbana, OH; Burford Corp.,
Maysville, OK; Kwik Lok Corp., Yakima, WA; and Satin
Fine Foods, Chester, NY. BEMA staffed its pavilion with
five translators and offered a lounge.
Other BEMA companies sent representatives to Mos-

cow, who used the pavilion as their base of activities, according to Mr. Brown. Many BEMA members with international parent companies also exhibited at the show.
"For our exhibitors, the show was a mix of seeing established customers and meeting new ones," Mr. Brown
said. A number of companies sat down with agents and
distributors to discuss possible business agreements.
These meetings were facilitated by Darya Kolesnikova,
a US Commerce Department commercial specialist stationed at the American Embassy in Moscow.
Before the show opened, Ms. Kolesnikova gave the
BEMA pavilion exhibitors a briefing about doing business in Russia and set up a tour of JCS Proletrets, a
wholesale bakery. She also assisted with local arrangements just as she had for the large contingent of Russian
bakers who attended IBIE 2013 in Las Vegas.
The event featured 212 exhibitors from 22 countries.
Although most were from Russia, the German pavilion had 41 exhibitors. This marks the 20th year for the
Moscow baking expo, organized by O/W/P Ost-WestPartners GmbH, Nürenburg, Germany, which specializes in running events in Russia.
In the days right before Modern Bakery Moscow,
some participants expressed concerns about what the
current political tensions between the US and Russia
might mean to the American exhibitors. Because of this,
the pavilion's signage identified only BEMA.
On the show floor, however, those worries quickly
evaporated. Mr. Brown reported, "When asked, people
would say, 'That's politics. This is business.' We heard it

Six BEMA member companies took space in the association's pavilion at Modern
Bakery Moscow 2014.

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