Who you meet
Category managers and buyers from retail chains, importers and distributors, food service buyers, and other producers looking for ingredients or co-packing. Most of the visitors are international.
Food and drink
SIAL Paris
SIAL Paris is the international food industry trade show, held every two years in October at Paris Nord Villepinte. Food and drink producers meet buyers from retail, food service, import and distribution, from all over the world.
2028?TBA
Next edition
2028 · Dates to be announced
Paris, France
Prepare lead capture for SIAL Paris
Free account · Your first two events are on us
Exhibiting as a team? See the Team offerPhoto: Léonard Cotte / Unsplash
Next edition
2028 · Dates to be announced
Venue
Paris, FranceParis Nord Villepinte
Frequency
Every two years · October
Organiser
Comexposium
Official website
Dates come from the source shown and may change: confirm them on the official website before you book.
SIAL Paris in figures
8,000+
exhibitors expected
295,000
professionals expected
280,000
m² of exhibition space
Figures for the 2026 edition, as published by the organiser. Source
What makes capturing contacts hard here
Languages and formats. A buyer from another continent hands over a card in their alphabet, or a badge, and moves on to the next of the many stands they have to see. The useful part, which product and which market, is never on the card.
How to prepare
Photograph the card or badge in trade show mode and tick the product range and market they asked about, in seconds. Put the form in English so international visitors can fill it themselves from the QR code. With two years between editions, the list is also next edition's prospecting file: export it.
The exhibitor’s guide to SIAL Paris
The food industry's biennial in Paris
SIAL Paris was first held in 1964, at the CNIT in La Défense, with some six hundred exhibitors, more than half of them from abroad. It was designed from the start as a biennial event, and has been held at Paris Nord Villepinte since the 1980s, in October of even years. It celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2024. It is one of the world's largest food trade shows, organised by Comexposium, and part of a network of SIAL events in other countries.
The show is organised by product sector, from dairy and meat to beverages, frozen food, fine food and ingredients, with national pavilions from dozens of countries. Visitors are buyers from retail chains, wholesalers, importers, food service and the food industry itself. Most of them come to find products and suppliers, so the conversations are commercial from the first minute.
Planning your participation
Because SIAL takes place every two years, the planning starts long before. Pavilions and stands are booked well ahead, and the best buyers decide their programme weeks before the show. Contact your target importers and chains in advance and give them your hall and stand number.
Paris hotels are in demand during the show, and Villepinte is far from the centre. Stay near the RER B line, which runs from central Paris to the Parc des Expositions station and on to Charles de Gaulle airport. Prepare a form in English, with the questions a buyer expects: product range, target market, volumes, and whether they buy for retail, food service or industry.
On the floor
Many SIAL visitors hand over cards printed in another alphabet, or carry badges with their details. Photograph them in trade show mode, tick the range and the market, and add a note on the quantities or certifications they asked about. The record can be completed after the show; what matters is not losing the contact.
Tastings draw crowds. A QR code next to the product lets the people who tasted it leave their details on their own phone while the team keeps serving.
After the show
International buyers receive a lot of offers after SIAL. Send yours quickly, in English or in the buyer's language if you can, with the price list, the specifications and the certifications they asked about. Sort contacts by market and by channel before sending, so each importer receives the offer that matches their country.
Three ways to capture contacts at SIAL Paris
They scan your card
A QR code on the stand or an NFC card in your hand: the contact fills in your form on their own phone, with your qualification questions.
Or you capture them
In trade show mode, photograph a business card or a badge, add a note and a temperature, and move on. It works with no signal.
Or they use the tablet
A visitor tablet on the counter takes the details of whoever is waiting while you are busy, and resets for the next person.
Exhibiting at SIAL Paris?
Set up your lead capture in minutes: a QR code for your stand, trade show mode on your phone, and the follow-up email ready to leave.
Getting there
RER B stops at Parc des Expositions station, at the entrance of Paris Nord Villepinte.
Charles de Gaulle airport is one RER stop away, about 10 minutes.
Questions
The next edition of SIAL Paris is planned for 2028, with dates still to be announced. The show is usually held in October.
Past editions
- Oct17–21202617 – 21 October 2026
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