In this issue, we're taking a look back at BBQ WEEK 2022. Good food, great drinks, music, and the opportunity to finally get together and celebrate again provided the perfect setting for a successful event celebrating FIRE&FOOD's 20th anniversary. Thank you for being there, and thank you to all the exhibitors, sponsors, and helpers. Please mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2023, when the next event will take place (starting on page 44).
Since gas prices have skyrocketed, electric grills are receiving even more attention. Following the Sevo from Severin, the electric Beefer, and the Grillstation from Landmann, further brands are already in the pipeline.
After a two-year hiatus, spoga returned to Cologne. The prevailing sentiment was that rising material and logistics costs, coupled with unstable supply chains, are posing significant challenges for grill brands. Adding to the pressure, rising prices, high inflation, and uncertainty about final energy bills are making consumers hesitant to buy grills. This is particularly noticeable in the €200 to €500 price range. Nevertheless, optimism prevails, as most grill brands are reporting sales figures above pre-pandemic levels. A review of spoga can be found on pages 74–75.
The intense pressure on pork prices, caused by export bans due to African swine fever, but also by rising feed costs, is forcing more and more pig farmers to abandon their farms. Only the highest quality meat will offer pork producers a future. Fewer animals kept in species-appropriate conditions and regional processing will bring producers the higher and necessary added value. Even marketing must move closer to the farms again. Only in this way can sales and price problems, such as those recently experienced with asparagus and strawberries, be avoided. After reporting on the success story of the Swabian-Hall pig in issue 1/22, this issue focuses on the Bunte Bentheimer pig (starting on page 10).
New in this issue of FIRE&FOOD are the pages dedicated to the GBA (German Barbecue Association e.V.) (pages 54–55). We are all looking forward to the 25th German Barbecue Championship, which will take place in Fulda from August 6th to 7th.