Looking back, moving forward

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It was lucky number 13 for Gulfood as the 2008 edition cemented the show's reputation as an industry stalwart.

Gulfood returned to Dubai bigger and better than ever last month, with more exhibitors, new products and a huge increase in the number of visitors.

While the 2007 edition saw more than 37,000 people from the foodservice and manufacturing industry attend the show - with buying delegations from more than 30 different countries - this year saw a growth of 20%, with the show taking over the entire venue at Dubai International Exhibition Centre, according to Gulfood project manager Elly Habt.

"We reorganised the layout of Gulfood into different sectors, so we had processing, packaging and labelling equipment together in hall two, as well as beverages and beverage equipment in hall three," she said.

"On the visitor side, since we launched our online registrations we saw a significant jump there. The visitor interest has grown. It's one thing growing the show size-wise, but it's another thing to make sure that we deliver more visitors," she added.

The Beverage Opportunity Workshops that ran alongside Gulfood offered insight into marketing and branding strategies for the trade, with best-practice suggestions for operating in the region.

There was also the new Restaurant and Café Middle East exhibition, which took place in hall one and was designed to meet the needs of new restaurants and cafés setting up in the region, with everything from cutlery, chinaware and tableware to flooring, seating and lighting.

"The conference programme also improved tremendously this year. It literally grew from 150 attendees in previous years to 600 people this year. The speakers came in from all over the world - from the US, Canada, New Zealand and across the region - and they put together quite an extensive programme," said Habt.

"It was all about industry issues, food safety and the new regulations in the region, and how these areas can be improved," she explained.

As in previous years, the industry favourite Salon Culinaire took centre stage, this year featuring a new chocolate workshop.

"It was all the young chefs competing. More than 1000 took part. They had 25 international judges this year, and they ran competitions from the World Association of Chefs Society (WACS)," said Habt.

"They had a lot of the same competitions as in previous years, but the important thing this year was that the judges chose six chefs under the age of 23 who will go on to qualify for the WACS Congress, which will be held in May in Dubai."

The addition of the Sheikh Rashid and Sheikh Maktoum halls this year made space for a larger number of country pavilions, with an increase in interest from exhibitors from South America and Eastern Europe.

The countries with the largest presence included the US, Turkey, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, and Egypt.

"We already had visitors from Brazil last year, but the country doubled or even tripled the size of its stand this year because of the importance of the Halal meat exported from Brazil to the Middle East," added Habt.

"On the equipment side, the biggest national pavilion was from Germany, which was more than 1200m²," she continued.

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World Class Management
Posted by Mc Coy de Guzman, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Thursday 13 March 2008 at 13:43 UAE time


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