THAIFEX–World of Food Asia celebrates an outstanding year

THAIFEX – World of Food Asia marks its 10^th anniversary this year and an outstanding year with record-breaking international participation. With more than 20% increase in overseas exhibitor numbers, THAIFEX-World of Food Asia once again reinforces its position as an important food and hospitality trade fair in Asia.

This year saw an increase in exhibitor numbers by almost 10% and trade visitor numbers by 11%. In total, the show welcomed 1,463 exhibitors and more than 30,000 trade visitors.

Michael Dreyer, vice-president, Asia Pacific, Koelnmesse said, “The 10th anniversary of THAIFEX–World of Food Asia, marks a milestone. It is a bigger, better and an ever more international edition. We believe the next decade will bring a more outstanding growth not just in the scale of our show, but also in quantitative and qualitative volume. The 11% increase in our trade visitor attendance has proven our stance as a business-driven trade show, despite the challenging political situation right from the start of our show until the closing day.”

The three-day trade event has garnered a thumbs-up rating from exhibitors who were pleased with the turnout of more than 30,000 international and domestic trade buyers and visitors.

Buyers and exhibitors were offered a multitude of opportunities to identify their potential business partners across 16 different food and hospitality segments, ranging from F&B producers through to seafood, coffee & tea manufacturers as well as equipment and food service providers. Visitors could locate specialist trade partners in the World of Seafood, World of Coffee & Tea and World of FoodService.

Said Chris Ooi, head of Sales & Marketing from Everbest Soya Bean Products Sdn Bhd: “We see an improvement in the quality of the visitors to our booth, with buyers coming from Southeast Asia and Europe. Sales leads and deals were made at THAIFEX-World of Food Asia and this, to us, is what made the show a success.”

Matt Rutter, general manager of Geraldton Fishermen’s Co-operative explained, “This may be the first time we have participated at World of Seafood, but our display of live lobster in a tank has certainly been a crowd-puller. We are very pleased with the business potential generated through this show, with enquiries from Japan, Korea, the Middle East, Norway and of course, Thailand. We will be making every effort to return for the next edition in 2015.”

Charles Kutner of Boncafe Thailand, who participated in the World of Coffee & Tea, was happy with the company’s achievements. “The environment was very conducive… there were many experts in the coffee and tea business who shared their insights through our Boncafe Workshops. We were able to network with the best from the industry, and made many good contacts.”

Roberto Da Pra of IARP Asia Co., Ltd., who exhibited in the World of FoodService added, “We have been with THAIFEX-World of Food Asia for more than a decade and the introduction of World of FoodService has certainly given us leverage.”

The Best of Japan

With Japan as the partner country, THAIFEX–World of Food Asia featured an impressive presentation of Japanese products both on the show floor and at the 10-Year Anniversary Welcome Reception. The Japan Pavilion, led by JETRO, presented a total of 55 companies. This included companies led by the Kyushu Trade Promotion Board, as well as companies from Kagoshima Prefecture and independent companies from various prefectures in Japan.

Toshiharu Uki, director, Trade Promotion Department of JETRO Bangkok said, “THAIFEX-World of Food Asia brought much attention to Japan and our specialty products. Many of our companies had successful business meetings with potential buyers from Thailand and overseas, and they were satisfied with the outcome. Overall, the return-on-investment from THAIFEX-World of Food Asia has exceeded our expectations. Next year, we hope to return with more companies.”

THAIFEX-World of Food Asia 2015 will return to IMPACT from May 20-24 next year.