* 37% increase in visitors shows region’s appetite for food and beverage products
* Turkey has been one of the leading foreign national participations at this important event
With a 37% increase in visitor numbers at the 2013 edition, SIAL Middle East has cemented its position as the genuine business class event for the food and beverage industry in the region. SIAL Middle East 2013 attracted more than 17000 attendees over 3 days to meet more than 700 exhibitors from 52 countries.
Growing at an average of 20% in exhibit space and 30% increase in visitors each year, SIAL Middle East is now recognized as a must attend event.
Organizing Committee Chairman Mohammed Jalal Al Rayssi said: “At the heart of SIAL Middle East is innovation and the fact that 65 per cent of products on show this year are new to the Middle East region reflects the constantly evolving global landscape of the food, drink and hospitality industries.”
Mohamed Ahmed Al Shehhi, CEO of M.A.N Investments commented on the performans of the show: “SIAL Middle East is very interesting. We have had great success so far and we have met a lot of serious businessmen and buyers who are very interested in our products. We are glad to present our products in front of lots of people and we had a lot of visitors from different countries. At the same time we have visited a lot of other stands which we were interested to visit in their home countries but meeting them here saves us a lot of effort. We believe SIAL Middle East is a very important event and have decided to double our stand size for 2014.”
The fourth annual SIAL Middle East conference took place in Abu Dhabi, showcasing brands involved in the region’s food, drink and hospitality industries
HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nayhan launched the event which featured over 1000 exhibitors from 40 countries, present to display their newest food related products and services.
The brands featured included a mix of established brands as well as many newcomers to the Middle East region.
SIAL Middle East Organizing Committee chairman Mohammed Jalal Al Rayssi said: “At the heart of SIAL Middle East is innovation and the fact that 65 per cent of products on show this year are new to the Middle East region reflects the constantly evolving global landscape of the food, drink and hospitality industries.”
The exhibitors latest innovations were displayed in 21 international pavilions spread throughout the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
The event consisted of a three-day conference, a buyer program and finally an international chef competition called La Cuisine by SIAL in which 600 chefs from four continents competed across 17 different categories.
SIAL Middle East 2013 was held in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and the SIAL group, which is the world’s largest host of B2B food exhibitions.
Interview with Mahmut Gulgonul, Export Sales & Marketing Manager, Aksuvital Natural & Healthy Food Products Co. about the performance of SIAL Middle East 2013:
How was SIAL Middle East 2013? Were you satisfied with the performance of the fair?
There were fewer visitors when compared to previous year. We were partially satisfied with it. But we expect much better performance from the organizer in the forthcoming years.
What did you offer at the fair? Did you have any novelties this year? Did your stand arouse interest from the visitors?
We tried to offer our products to the international visitors and introduce our new concepts. As emphasized, the visitors were not satisfying this year, the main organizer should do marketing the fair more effectively in the global arenas and collect much more international visitors, distributors, and wholesalers from the every part of the world.
How would you rate international food fairs? Which ones are the most important ones?
Definitely true places to meet global customers, importers, distributors and purchasers of hyper & supermarkets. Fairs are also very fruitful arenas to introduce and discover new items & concepts.
We can rate as Anuga, Gulfood, Sial Paris, Foodex, Sial ME, etc..
Which fairs are you planning to exhibit in 2014?
We may be interested in these fairs; Sial ME, Sial Paris, sectoral food & cosmetic fairs in North Africa, USA and Far Eastern countries.
How do you foresee the Turkish food industry in the future?
As long as Turkish food industry follows up the international trends and concepts, I am definitely sure that it will have much more successful stories in this field.
I strongly believe that there are lots of things to do and long way to go. Therefore we should work much harder and build up internationally popular brands soon.
