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Gulfood ’17 to present itself in new format with eight food sub-sectors
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Saturday, 18 February, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Harcha Bhaskar, Mumbai
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The 22nd edition of Gulfood, which will be held at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) between February 26 and March 2, 2017. Held annually, the show is one of the largest commodity trading events and exhibitions. This year, for the first time, considering the vastness of food and beverage sector, the organisers have bifurcated the event into beverages, dairy; fats and oils, health, wellness and free-from, pulses, grains and cereals, meat and poultry, power brands and world food.
Commenting about the new format of the event, Mark Napier, exhibitions director, DWTC, and show director, Gulfood 2017, stated, “The new format will allow visitors to get straight to business, assessing quality and benchmarking price in segments of interest. It also allows for deeper market insights and trend awareness through focused consultation with the right experts in one place.”
The event welcomes F&B professionals from all corners of the globe to meet for five days of business within the central hub for international trade and commerce.
Launched as a biennial event in 1987, the exhibition has grown to promote F&B trade among more than 120 countries annually, enabling 5,000 providers of raw materials and ingredients to showcase the tastes, trends and innovations that are shaping the future of food and beverage consumption worldwide.
Gulfood is a business-to-business (B2B) trade exhibition that is professionally managed and hosted by DWTC.
With three decades of experience in delivering world-class events and an ongoing commitment to commerce and innovation within the exhibition industry, DWTC is recognised as a key driver of tourism growth throughout the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The event is known as one of the world’s largest annual food events, serving one of the fastest growing sectors on the planet. It provides networking opportunities to new food businesses in established, evolving and emerging markets. One can access more than 5,000 local, regional and international suppliers from five continents during a critical phase in the annual world harvest cycle.
This is a must-attend event for consistent growth, by sourcing latest products from the most competitive suppliers armed with real-time knowledge of industry pricing and forthcoming trends.
According to the organisers, the event is a huge opportunity for Indian traders to mark their presence in the Gulf countries and make the existing ties stronger.
Interestingly, according to a recent report commissioned by the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Ministry of External Affairs, UAE-India trade may hit $100 billion in 2020. India also ranks third among countries that export to the UAE, accounting for about 9.2 per cent of the total imports by the UAE.
Visitors and exhibitors
Spread across an area of over 100,000sq m, this year’s event will witness more than 95,000 trade attendees. Out of the total attendees, around 60 per cent are international visitors and 40 per cent are UAE traders. More than 120 trading countries would be participating in the event.
For those seeking country-specific products, services or business partners, Gulfood 2017 will also feature 120 national pavilions.
Napier said, “Alongside the new sectorised format, the event welcomes first-time participants from Malta, Finland, Slovakia, Somalia and Azerbaijan.”
The attendees belong to a vast portfolio like restaurateurs, retailers, baristas, government officials, brands, distributors/wholesalers, chefs, importers, food producers and exporters.
Features
Halal World Food
Halal World Food is a show-within-a-show concept and is in its fourth edition at Gulfood 2017. With the worldwide Halal food and lifestyle market poised to reach US$3.7 trillion by 2019, the show gives a major global trading platform, which generates lucrative investment opportunities for international F&B businesses looking to capitalise on the growing Halal sector.
Showcasing the UAE's strategic position as an international centre for Halal food trading, Halal World Food showcases the full spectrum of Halal products – including vegan and vegetarian food, meat and poultry, canned goods, energy drinks, and gourmet.
• One can easily locate and appraise the Halal products that are most relevant to the needs
• This is an opportunity to gain granular insight into investment opportunities entering the Halal sector throughout the world
• One can meet Halal food policy-shapers to discuss certification and quality assurance in this highly profitable and fast-growing sub-sectors.
Gulfood Innovation Awards
The eighth edition of the Gulfood Innovation Awards will celebrate excellence and innovation across 20 categories within the global food and drink industry.
This edition of the annual event will award 20 accolades judged by an international panel of independent industry experts. Winners will be announced during a glittering gala ceremony that is widely regarded as the ultimate networking opportunity for the industry’s elite.
Salon Culinaire
The Emirates Culinary Guild International Salon Culinaire is the largest single-entry chefs’ competition in the world.
Napier stated, “The Salon Culinaire will raise the profiles of more than 1,000 of the region’s top professional chefs, pastry chefs, cooks and bakers for a series of competitions judged by a panel of renowned experts drawn up by the World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS).”
Structured as a series of practical and display-based culinary challenges or classes, this globally renowned annual contest gauges the diversity of entrants cooking skills and pushes the boundaries of modern day food preparation and presentation.
It provides credible industry recognition to more than a thousand master chefs, pastry chefs, cooks and bakers all battling to receive the coveted titles.
Barista Masters
The event, well known for delivering superb profit margins to hoteliers and specialty coffee businesses, is a major focus for the region’s hotel, restaurant and cafe (HORECA) professionals.
In the year 2017, it will be welcoming coffee experts from around the world to raise their profiles at the all new Barista Masters - a major coffee brewing championship supported by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe.
Gulfood Virtual Supermarket
Buyers seeking world-leading industry innovations should pay a visit the Gulfood Virtual Supermarket being hosted onsite at this year’s event.
The brand new interactive digital feature is a virtual shop window to the standout products and cutting-edge technologies being showcased across the board at the event.
Broken down into three major sourcing categories, including Innovative Products, Organic-Free From and Halal, the elected showcases will be verified by an independent board of members to ensure only the best and most relevant products and services make the grade.
The feature will maximise the productivity onsite in the following ways:
• Browse products in digital format before committing face-to-face time
• Obtain crucial product information at the click of a button to focus forthcoming sourcing discussions
• Directly locate selected products via the event’s interactive route planner
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