It’s a brave new world in baking that calls for new ways of thinking, processing and working, and iba 2025 is bringing new solutions and ideas to Düsseldorf, Germany, May 18-22, 2025. The world’s largest trade show for the baking industry aims to be the hub where bakers and suppliers can exhibit, learn and network. 

“iba is a platform for the industry,” said Susann Seidemann, director of iba. “We’d like to provide the industry a place to come together and talk about changes, see new products and network.” 

To facilitate this vision, iba offers seven halls of exhibit space, more focused topics for educational programming, competitions and entertainment to bring people together beyond baking. With more than 90% of the available  space sold, baker attendees can expect plenty of new technology on the show floor to help them solve their greatest processing and labor challenges today. The focused topics, which were new in 2023, will be back in 2025 with new areas spotlighted to serve the industry’s challenges. 

“The global industry has been and still is facing a shortage of skilled workers, high energy costs, rising product costs, legal requirements and bureaucracy as well as digitalization and technological adaptation and a lot is changing,” said Julia Scharfenberger, public and media relations manager, iba. “We’re a mirror of the market; we’re finding out what’s important for the industry, and we are the platform for the solutions, bringing together the supply and the demand.” 

Seidemann’s first iba as director was in 2023, and for that trade show, she and her team implemented new educational programming now referred to as focused topics. These are the conversations that are moving the industry, and not only provide a focus for education but also a through line for other parts of the show, like the exhibit halls. 

“My team and I decided to introduce the topics because while attending other industry events and from conversations with the market, we discovered that these topics concern the entire industry, not just one country or region,” Seidemann explained. “In 2023, we developed seven topics that were the pillars of the event but also more importantly exhibitors could provide content as well as products and visitors could find solutions before, during and after the show.”

While there may have been seven focus topics in 2023, three of them were highlighted with either dedicated action areas and halls or special lectures: sustainability, digitalization and artisan bakery. In 2025, food trends, digitalization and artisan bakery will be the three focus topics in the spotlight. Other focus topics include turnkey solutions, quality management, sustainability and health.

“The topics don’t change in general, but we see different amounts of interest from attendees and further development of the topics,” Seidemann explained. “Sustainability, for example, will still be a focus topic in 2025 and is important, but we would rather have presentations and best practices on sustainability and climate change goals than a dedicated focus as a highlight topic. Exhibitors will be talking about what they need to address themselves and in the whole supply chain; we’ll do that with experts and lectures as well.”

Completely new for the show in 2025 is that the focus topic food trends will have its own area dedicated to consumer needs and ingredients that meet the goals of the market. Seidemann said they want the entire hall to be involved in the topic with exhibitors on stage presenting the trends for the coming years and solutions to help bakers achieve them. 

“In the ingredient section, the industry has endured a lot of challenges with the global supply chain being disrupted by world affairs such as the war in Ukraine and Russia, especially for the German bakers,” Seidemann said. “As prices rise and ingredients are difficult to source, we might not be able to use the same amount of ingredients as in the past, such as meat, butter and eggs, which are becoming scarce and luxury goods. We’d like to see conversations around alternatives that exist. We want to bring the knowledge and experience around supply chain challenges and start an exchange.”