WorldFood İstanbul, the international meeting platform of the Turkish food industry, is preparing to introduce many new products and the latest technologies to the food industry.
In the exhibition, where more than 600 foreign buyers from 70 countries will be hosted; exhibitors and visitors will have the opportunity to see innovations and products in the market, access international and domestic companies, and develop relations with suppliers and manufacturers. Hosting more than 30 countries like Afghanistan, Algeria, China, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Palestinian Authority, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States, Uzbekistan, the exhibition will also host a total of 796 exhibitors, 713 of which are local and 83 are foreigners.
TİM Cereals, Pulses, Oil Seeds and Products Sector Board and all its exporters’ associations, Turkish Food and Beverage Industry Associations Federation (TGDF) and Out-of-Home Consumption Suppliers Association (ETUDER) joined forces under the name of “Turkish Food Platform” with the aim of making WorldFood Istanbul International Food Products Technologies Exhibition one of the most effective exhibitions in its field in the world. The Turkish Food Platform aims for WorldFood Istanbul, the largest sector exhibition of Eurasia, to reach new records in terms of visitors, exhibitors, foreign purchasing professionals and business volume. ALZ Fair, one of the leading organizations of the Turkish exhibition organization sector, will take place as the “Cooperation Organization” at the WorldFood İstanbul Exhibition, which brings together the umbrella organizations of the Turkish food industry by going through historical cooperation.
Welcoming 38,358 visitors from 163 different countries last year, International Food Products and Technologies Exhibition – WorldFood İstanbul not only created new business and partnership opportunities in its 30th year, but also offered a productive fair experience with its informative and inspiring events. By showing a realistic vision of the future to the sector with its Event Program, it brought to the stage many guiding issues for sustainable investments, technological developments and exportoriented projects. While 835 exhibitors from 25 different countries presented their more than 2000 brands to both professional visitors and over 600 foreign purchasing professionals from 77 countries, as a result of the meetings held within the scope of the WorldFood İstanbul VIP Procurement Committee program for 4 days, the targeted “minimum 1 billion Euro business volume” aim was achieved. Participants; More than 7,000 B2B meetings were held with the matching application, which brought together visitors and procurement committees, and new collaborations were signed.
Last year, one of the largest meeting points influencing food and food technologies trends WorldFood İstanbul, where information on healthy and reliable products and zero waste kitchen tips were shared and recipes were prepared with planet-friendly flavors, accompanied by star chefs in order to raise awareness on sustainability and inspire the industry, will meet with its visitors and participants for the 31st time this year with the Food Arena event program, where the sector’s agenda will be scrutinized with experts.
Exhibition director Semi Benbanaste will open this year’s panel titles as follows: “Food Supply Security in Disaster Times”, “Sustainable Supply Chain – Let’s Bring Hope!”, “Safe and Waste-Free Tables Without Toxic”, “Social Good, Solidarity and How to Stand Up Small Entrepreneur and the Region?” Issues such as “Food Sector at the Heart of Exports, New Markets in Exports & Growth Strategies” will also be discussed at the exhibition, where the balance sheet of the earthquake in the agriculture and food sector, needs, support programs, 2023 analysis of the sector and 2024 predictions will be shared. With the sessions, workshops, entrepreneur presentations and award ceremonies held during the exhibition, the sector stakeholders will be able to follow the pulse of the sector on the Food Arena event area and on YouTube.
Besides creating new business and partnership opportunities, 31th WorldFood İstanbul will show a realistic vision of the future to the sector with its full program of events, and will bring to the stage many guiding issues for sustainable investments, technological developments and export-oriented projects.
Women entrepreneurs making a change in the food industry will tell their stories at the Food Tech Garage In addition to workshops, kitchen workshops and taste shows will also be held at the fair, and an area consisting entirely of women entrepreneurs will be established with the Food Tech Garage area, as it was last year. Women entrepreneurs will present their innovative projects, including healthy, organic and vegan products, biotechnology, innovative agricultural practices, sectorspecific technological solutions, services and stories that transform the food and agriculture sectors, in the Food Tech Garage area, simultaneously with the exhibition.
Exhibition Director Semi Benbanaste expressed the importance of the fair in the light of the developments in the food sector: “As of the end of 2022, annual food inflation is 77.87 percent, annual agricultural input prices increase is 103.14 percent and annual agricultural producer inflation was 151.03 percent. In 2023, we see a decrease in food inflation. As of the end of February, annual food inflation decreased to 69.33 percent. While annual agricultural producer inflation decreased to 127.56 percent at the end of February, the decline in food inflation is expected to continue in 2023. In the first 2 months of 2023, the export of animal products was 0.5 billion dollars. Despite the effects of the earthquake, Türkiye will be able to reach its export target of 30 billion dollars in 2023. WorldFood İstanbul aims to lead the development of the sector since our first organization and brings together the leading stakeholders of the sector every year with this goal. Last year, we presented 835 exhibitors from 25 different countries, over 2000 brands to both professional visitors and over 600 foreign purchasing professionals from 77 countries. As a result of the meetings held within the scope of the WorldFood İstanbul VIP Procurement Mission program for 4 days, we reached our target that we had determined before the exhibition, which was a business volume of at least 1 billion Euros, and led to a sales of 1.2 billion Euros. This year, for the 31st time, there will be many specialized brands and manufacturers in WorldFood İstanbul, which will play a major role in the advancement of the industry. WorldFood İstanbul, which stands out as one of the most important exhibitions of the food industry, undertakes an important task with the participation of the names that shape the sector, events that will make an impact, new products that will meet with the visitors for the first time and a wide participant profile.”