Baking & Snack - March 2006 - 12

NEWS FRONT
Danisco USA celebrated the grand opening of its
new state-of-the-art corporate facility and innovation
center at New Century (Gardner), KS, on Feb. 24 with
(from left) Carol Lehman, mayor, Gardner.; Steve Kelly,
deputy secretary, Kansas Department of Commerce;
Tom Knutzen, executive vice-president, Danisco A/S,
Copenhagen, Denmark; Deborah Rolf, president, Danisco
USA; Alf Duch-Pedersen, c.e.o., Danisco A/S; and Karen
Nielsen, consul, Royal Danish Consulate, Overland
Park, Kas., cutting the ribbon. Actively supplying food
processors in the United States for 30 years, the Danish
ingredient producer has locations in 40 countries and test
facilities in 16. "This new site houses a world-renowned
facility for innovation," Ms. Rolf said. "It was designed with
our customers in mind, and it works to help us achieve
our vision to deliver value to the customer."

IBIE begins selling exhibit space for 2007
The International Baking Industry Exposition recently began selling exhibit space for
its next event, taking place at the Orange
County Convention Center in Orlando,
FL, Oct. 7-10, 2007. Space is being sold in a
3-tiered process, allowing members of the
American Bakers Association and BEMA
to secure booth space first, followed by
past IBIE exhibitors and opened to all in
April of 2006.
The move to Orlando has been received
positively by key exhibitors who already
have secured space for 2007. The new location is seen as an unprecedented opportunity to reach decision
makers from the East
coast or regional businesses who historically
have not traveled to Las
Vegas, NV. Similarly,
the move is expected to
attract new international participants who
may only have been attending European
events. "The Orlando location is a unique
opportunity for exhibitors to expand markets and market share by meeting new
buyers that don't attend other events," said
Rich Hoskins, president of Colborne Corp.
and IBIE committee vice-chairman.
IBIE is a cost-effective way for manufacturers and suppliers to do business with
serious buyers from throughout the baking industry. The event attracts decisionmaking executives, including engineers,
R&D personnel, operations specialists and

14 / BAKING & SNACK / March 2006

managers who come to see and buy the latest
products and equipment that may enhance
their operations and improve the way they
do business. In recent years, the event has
drawn an increasing number of retail bakers
and in-store supermarket and food service
bakers, as well.
"In addition to the new geographic markets that will come to Orlando, a concerted
effort is being made to broaden the scope
of IBIE to include participation from all
segments of the grain-based food industry," said Jack Lewis, president of Lewis
Bakeries and IBIE
committee chairman. "New initiatives aimed at retail bakers, biscuit
and cracker companies, the tortilla
industry and more
are being launched
in 2007 and are expected to enhance IBIE's
position as the one event that brings the
entire industry together."
Mr. Lewis also expects the move to Orlando to be a beneficial one. "Orlando has
become a world-class tradeshow destination
that has more to offer the business traveler
than ever before," Mr. Lewis said. "Baking
professionals will find that Orlando is a
great place to conduct business, hold meetings, network with colleagues and entertain
clients. We believe that the new location and
expanded scope of the show will help make
IBIE 2007 a huge success."

ABA addresses
sugar availability
In a phone call to US Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, American Bakers Association president and c.e.o.
Robb MacKie, discussed the recent tightening of sugar supplies.
The call, made on behalf of the baking industry, was used to impress upon Secretary
Johanns the effect the tight supply situation
prevalent in the aftermath of hurricanes
Katrina and Rita is
having on bakers.
On Feb. 2, USDA
announced that it
was further modifying the 2006
sugar
import
program to allow increased availability
to meet domestic sugar needs. USDA increased the Overall Allotment Quantity
(OAQ) by 525,000 short tons, raw value
(STRV) to a total of 9.350 million STRV.
Due to the inability of domestic producers
to fill this need, USDA announced that it is
also increasing the tariff rate quota (TRQ)
by 500,000 STRV evenly divided between
refined and raw sugar.
"ABA commends USDA on its willingness to work with the baking industry on
this most recent increase to the OAQ. As
the largest group of industrial sugar users,
access to sufficient quantities of this commodity continues to be a challenge for our
industry," said Kelly H. Knowles, ABA director of government and political affairs.

Baking & Snack - March 2006

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