Anuga Select Brazil 2026: What It Is and Why the Industry Shows Up

Every April, São Paulo hosts the largest food and beverage trade event in the Americas. This guide covers what Anuga Select Brazil actually is, how the Business Round program works, who qualifies to attend, what the 2026 edition adds, and what the numbers behind Brazil's food sector tell us about why this fair keeps growing. If you are evaluating whether to attend, exhibit, or simply understand what is happening in Latin American food trade right now, this is the place to start.

The official logo of Anuga Select Brazil, the largest food and beverage trade fair in the Americas, held April 7 to 9, 2026 at Distrito Anhembi, São Paulo, Brazil.

Quick Facts:

📅 Dates: April 7 to 9, 2026

⏰ Hours: 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM daily

📍 Location: Centro de Convenções, Distrito Anhembi, São Paulo, Brazil

🎫 Entry: Free accreditation for food and beverage industry professionals

👥 2025 attendance: 16,000+ professionals from 65 countries

🏢 2025 exhibitors: 510 brands from 38 countries

🌍 International pavilions: 17 country delegations in 2025

💰 2026 Business Round target: R$200 million, 5,000+ scheduled meetings

Brazil produces more food than it eats. That simple fact is the reason this fair exists.

The country's food and beverage industry generated R$1.39 trillion in revenue in 2025, according to ABIA, the Brazilian Food Industry Association. That is 10.8 percent of Brazil's entire GDP. Exports reached US$66.73 billion that year, with Asia absorbing US$27.4 billion of it. The United States imported US$4.9 billion in Brazilian food products in 2025 alone, up 9.2 percent despite new tariff pressures.

Brazil is not simply a large food market. It is one of the largest food production systems on the planet, and it is actively, urgently looking for places to sell what it makes. Anuga Select Brazil is where that search becomes a series of face-to-face conversations.

The fair runs for three days every April at the Centro de Convenções in São Paulo's Distrito Anhembi. It is the largest food and beverage trade event in the Americas. It started in 2019 under the name ANUFOOD Brazil, organized by Koelnmesse Brasil, the Brazilian arm of the same German company that runs Anuga Cologne. The name change to Anuga Select Brazil was not just a rebrand. It was a signal that what had been built in São Paulo was significant enough to carry the global Anuga identity permanently into Latin America.

The 7th edition opens on April 7, 2026.

What is Anuga Select Brazil?

Anuga Select Brazil is a strictly business-to-business food and beverage trade fair held annually in São Paulo. It is the largest event of its kind in the Americas, connecting food producers, importers, distributors, retailers, food service operators, and international buyers across three days of structured meetings, product showcases, and industry content.

It is not a consumer fair. You cannot walk in off the street. Entry requires advance registration and proof that you work in the food or beverage sector. A business card from a supermarket chain, a food service company, an import-export business, or a hotel group is enough to qualify. The gate exists to keep the floor filled with decision-makers rather than browsers, and it works. The people walking the aisles in any given hour include purchasing directors, import managers, brand founders, distribution executives, and trade analysts. The conversations on this floor start at a serious level from the first exchange.

Is Anuga Select Brazil free to attend?

Yes. Accreditation is free for all food and beverage industry professionals. There is no ticket price, no entry fee, and no tiered access system. You register online at the official website, confirm your professional details, and your accreditation covers all three days of the fair. ABAD, one of the official institutional partners of the event, confirmed free accreditation for the 2026 edition in January of this year.

The only cost is getting there.

What is the Business Round, and why does it matter?

Most people picture a trade fair as a product show where you walk around, collect brochures, and shake hands. That is the secondary function of Anuga Select Brazil.

The primary function is the Mega Business Round, a pre-matched structured meeting program where buyers and suppliers are connected before the fair opens, based on their profiles, product categories, and market interests. You do not arrive hoping to run into the right person. You arrive with a schedule.

For the 2026 edition, the organizers have confirmed 120 national and international buyers representing at least two from each Latin American country, more than 300 exhibitors, and more than 5,000 scheduled meetings. The target is R$200 million in business generated across the three days. Polliana Claudino, Projects Manager at Koelnmesse Brasil, described the ambition directly: "When we bring together a significant number of exhibitors and promote the largest business round in Latin America, we are demonstrating the strength of the sector and boosting the economy of this segment."

The 2025 edition generated 2,654 meetings and BRL 89 million in concrete business opportunities. The 2026 edition is targeting nearly double both figures. That trajectory is the reason serious buyers and exporters treat this fair as a working trip rather than a networking event.

Who should attend Anuga Select Brazil?

The fair works for three distinct groups, and it works differently for each one.

If you source food and beverage products for a retail chain, hotel group, food service operator, or distribution network, and any part of your supply chain touches or could touch Latin America, the floor covers ten product categories and the Business Round does the matching work before you arrive. Entry costs nothing beyond the registration and the flight.

If you are a food or beverage brand looking to enter the Brazilian market, this is one of the most concentrated opportunities available anywhere in the Americas to reach qualified buyers across retail, food service, wholesale, and hospitality simultaneously, in three days.

If you are a researcher, journalist, food technologist, or industry analyst, the Food Trends Auditorium runs three days of expert content covering the Mercosur-EU trade agreement, clean-label strategies, organic food trends in retail, and the future of private label in Brazilian supermarkets.

If you are none of those things, the registration system will say so. This fair is not designed for the general public and does not pretend to be.

What is new at the 2026 edition?

The 7th edition adds several things that were not part of the fair before. Private Label Brazil joins for the first time, focusing on private label strategy and co-manufacturing partnerships across retail categories. A new Cooking Show directed by Casa Flora brings live demonstrations and well-known chefs working with imported products. Burger Trends, created in partnership with Speed Burger, introduces a competition among Brazil's top burger makers alongside the Burger no Papo podcast with prominent industry guests.

The 1st Halal Forum makes its debut this year, which carries specific weight. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of halal-certified beef and poultry. The forum signals that the fair is not just connecting Brazilian products with buyers. It is connecting Brazil's export infrastructure with the certification and compliance ecosystems that international halal buyers operate inside.

The Chefs Brasil Pavilion, the Clash Congress ice cream gathering, and the Food Trends Auditorium all return from previous editions.

What does the fair tell us about where Brazilian food is heading?

ABIA president João Dornellas noted earlier this month that "the combination of harvest stability, gradual interest rate reduction, and an environment of moderate economic growth creates more predictable conditions for planning and investment." Brazil enters 2026 with its food sector on solid ground, and the recently finalized Mercosur-EU trade agreement is expected to open new low-tariff corridors for Brazilian food exports to Europe.

What this means at the fair level is direct. The Brazilian brands exhibiting in April are not just looking for domestic buyers. They are building international distribution networks, preparing for EU market entry, seeking Halal certification pathways, and positioning themselves in an export landscape that is more favorable than it has been in years. The international buyers attending from Germany, Japan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the USA are not there for the atmosphere. They are there because Brazil's production capacity and export ambition are both at a point where the conversations are genuinely worth having.

Is Anuga Select Brazil worth attending?

For anyone whose work touches food sourcing, food production, food distribution, or food industry research in Latin America or connected markets, yes. The combination of free entry, structured pre-matched meetings, ten product categories under one roof, and a floor filled exclusively with industry professionals makes it one of the highest-return three days available on the global food trade calendar.