Beviale Family welcomes new partner: KIBEX, South Korea

As of 3 April 2019, Korea International Beer Expo (KIBEX) has been part of the Beviale Family. At the premiere of Korea’s first international trade fair for the beer industry towards the end of March 2019, NürnbergMesse Group and the organiser GMEG (Global MICE Experts Group) signed a cooperation agreement. Alongside SEA Brew in Bangkok, KIBEX is the second partner to the Beviale Family in Asia and the tenth event overall in NürnbergMesse’s global network for the international beverage industry.

KIBEX made its first appearance before an audience of industry professionals in Seoul, South Korea, from 21 to 23 March 2019. At the same time, experts exchanged knowledge and information at the established KIBEX International Beer Conference. The trade fair covers all aspects of the domestic and international beer industry, from raw materials, equipment and accessories to the finished product beer.

Harper Lee, CEO of organiser GMEG, said: “We know that the Korean beverage market has a strong growth potential, so our plan for the next step is to expand the exhibition into covering all kinds of technologies related to beverage. In five years, with Beviale Family, our goal is to settle this exhibition as Asia’s top beer & beverage exhibition.”

KIBEX reflects the aspirational Korean beer market, which enjoyed strong growth last year and went from around 70 local craft beer breweries in 2017 to more than 110 in 2018. Experts expect this figure to double to around 200 breweries by 2020. This makes Korea an attractive drinks market which international equipment suppliers are increasingly seeing as a successful platform. The next KIBEX is expected to take place in April 2020. It is organised by GMEG and the Korean magazine The Beer Post.