Boston seafood show drew 20,000 visitors

Seafood Expo North America (SENA) attracted nearly 20,000 industry professionals for this year’s 42nd edition of the trade show, organiser Diversified Communications announced today.

SENA expo and its companion event Seafood Processing North America welcomed 19,780 visitors to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Centre from March 10-12.

This year’s event covered 249,665 net square feet of exhibit space - five percent more than in the 2023 edition – and featured 1,215 exhibiting companies from 49 countries.

“Year after year, the expo brings together key stakeholders in the industry to meet face to face and achieve their business goals,” said Wynter Courmont, vice president, seafood at Diversified Communications. “From large companies to small-scale startups and everything in between, the range of seafood professionals that attend the event provides a unique value for the industry to learn from one another and take their businesses to the next level.”

As previously reported, the winner of the Best New Retail Product was a “salmon salami” produced by Miami-based Highland Farms.

“We've been coming to the show since 1986,” said Jonathan Brown, chief executive and founder of Grant’s Smoked Foods, based in Maryport, Cumbria, UK, and Highland Farms. “It’s a great opportunity to show all the new products we’ve developed and to meet our customers from all over the world, from the Caribbean islands, South America, to all the States in America ... it’s fantastic to meet people we only get to see once a year. And to celebrate with them, particularly this year, our 40th year.”

Conference

A conference programme offered attendees educational sessions from top industry leaders around topics such as consumer trends and insights, aquaculture and aquatech, artificial intelligence (AI), social media and marketing, labour issues and governance, sustainability, ESG (environment, social, and governance) and traceability and transparency.

Next year’s event will take place from March 16-18, in the same venue.

The next, and biggest, event for Diversified Communications is Seafood Expo Global which takes place next week in Barcelona, Spain, from April 23-25. It is expected to attract around 30,000 visitors.

The 30th edition will be the largest in its history, occupying 51,227 net square meters of exhibit space – a 4% increase over its previous edition.

There will be more than 2,050 exhibiting companies from 84 countries and 66 country and regional pavilions. New countries such as Azerbaijan, Brazil, and Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and new regional pavilions from Brazil, France, Republic of Korea, Japan, and Oman have confirmed their attendance for the event.

“With the expansion into Hall 1 the event reinforces its position as the largest in-person global seafood trade event and enables us to reach a broader range of international seafood professionals from across the supply chain who are eager to showcase and discuss their latest advancements,” said Wynter Courmont.