This outstanding year is marked by a record-breaking number of international participation. With more than 20% increase in overseas exhibitor numbers, THAIFEX-World of Food Asia once again reinforces its position as one of the most important food and hospitality trade fairs in Asia.
Since it was officially launched in 2004, THAIFEX–World of Food Asia has reached many milestones in the past decade. One of the major achievements is the increased scale of the show. This year, the number of exhibitors continued to increase by almost 10% and trade visitor numbers by 11%. In total, the show welcomed 1,463 exhibitors and 30,479 trade visitors, with 24,138 local visitors and 6,341 coming from overseas.
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 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.”
Another record-breaking trade visitor attendance!
The 3-day trade event has garnered a thumbs-up rating from exhibitors for another year of record-breaking trade visitor attendance. More than 30,000 international and domestic trade buyers and visitors attended this year’s THAIFEX-World of Food Asia. They were able to meet up with top quality exhibitors ranging from food and beverage producers through to seafood, coffee & tea manufacturers as well as equipment and food service providers.
THAIFEX-World of Food Asia offered trade visitors a multitude of opportunities to identify their potential business partners across 16 different food and hospitality segments, with similar robust performance in World of Seafood, World of Coffee & Tea and World of FoodService.
Says Chris Ooi, Head of Sales & Marketing from Everbest Soya Bean Products SdnBhd, “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 explains, “This may be the first time we have participated at World of Seafood, but the 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 highlights, “The environment was very conducive, as 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 adds, “We have been with THAIFEX-World of Food Asia for more than a decade and the introduction of World of FoodService does take a while to get accustomed to but it has certainly given us leverage.”
Japan – official partner country – presents “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 THAIFEX-World of Food Asia‘s 10-Year Anniversary Welcome Reception. TheJapan 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 other independent companies from various prefectures in Japan.
Mr Toshiharu Uki, Director, Trade Promotion Department of JETRO Bangkok says, “As the partner country this year, THAIFEX-World of Food Asia brought much attention on 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 their outcome. Overall, the returns-on-investment from THAIFEX-World of Food Asia has exceeded our expectations. Next year, we hope to return with more companies.”
ASEAN food industry leaders convening at World of Food Safety ConferenceParallel to THAIFEX-World of Food Asia, the ASEAN Food Industry Thought Leaders Panel brought together global opinion leaders and food industry experts sharing their views on building capabilities to overcome food safety and security challenges, both domestically and internationally. The speakers comprised of top industry leaders, including PojAramwattananont, President of Sea Value Company Ltd and Hester Chew, Group CEO of McDonalds. They were joined by Yves Rey, Chairman, Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and Corporate Quality General Manager, Danone Group, France, as well as PisanPongsapitch, Deputy Secretary General of The National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards, and moderator John Spink, Director, Food Fraud Initiative (USA). Attendees to the ASEAN Food Industry Thought Leaders Panel included many C-level executives from the Thai as well as the wider Asian food & beverage industry.
In addition, the 2nd World of Food Safety Conference presented a strong panel of speakers over 2 days, presenting their research and case studies, as well as exchanging valuable insights with overseas delegates. In addition to thelocal specialists, the conference featured 15 senior international experts who covered an extensive range of Food Safety related topics including:
- AEC 2015 impact on global and regional food scenario, Supplier Management, Food Safety and Recalls
- Achieving GFSI certification in developing countries
- Microbial contamination control and Product Counterfeiting as a logistics disruption threat to a supply chain
- Balancing Sustainable Practices and Profitability and many more industry relevant topics.
The conference once again set high standards for in-depth interactions and high level know-how sharing among leading food safety specialists and practitioners.
Competitions Galore
The 3rd Thailand Ultimate Chef Challenge proved to be another outstanding success at this year’s THAIFEX-World of Food Asia! The competition, which has grown from strength to strength, boasted the highest number of competitors to date. With more than 500 chefs, the ratio of international to local participants was a close 30:70 ratio this year. This included 153 overseas competitors from Australia, Cambodia, China, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Taiwan, Slovakia, Vietnam and 356 Thai participants from 20 provinces.
Thailand Ultimate Chef Challenge 2014 Results – See APPENDIX A
Says Willment Leong, Organising Chairman, “This competition has become one of the most important culinary competitions in Thailand. The chefs are looking forward to joining this competition not just to win, but also to learn. With world-class judges with us, this has created a very positive atmosphere.”
At the 2nd Roasters’ Choice Award, 56 entries of beans were submitted by coffee producers from Asia. The panel of coffee specialists included, Michael De Renovard, TutiHahanahMochtar, Hide Nishimura, Felix Wong and Chen Chia-Sheng, were in search for the best coffee beans in Asia.
Head Judge Michael De Renovard explains, “This year’s submissions go to show the diversity and potential of the coffee bean growing industry in Asia. Each has its own distinctive characteristics, and will make an interesting cup of coffee.”
This outstanding year is marked by a record-breaking number of international participation. With more than 20% increase in overseas exhibitor numbers, THAIFEX-World of Food Asia once again reinforces its position as one of the most important food and hospitality trade fairs in Asia.
Since it was officially launched in 2004, THAIFEX–World of Food Asia has reached many milestones in the past decade. One of the major achievements is the increased scale of the show. This year, the number of exhibitors continued to increase by almost 10% and trade visitor numbers by 11%. In total, the show welcomed 1,463 exhibitors and 30,479 trade visitors, with 24,138 local visitors and 6,341 coming from overseas.
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 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.”
Another record-breaking trade visitor attendance!
The 3-day trade event has garnered a thumbs-up rating from exhibitors for another year of record-breaking trade visitor attendance. More than 30,000 international and domestic trade buyers and visitors attended this year’s THAIFEX-World of Food Asia. They were able to meet up with top quality exhibitors ranging from food and beverage producers through to seafood, coffee & tea manufacturers as well as equipment and food service providers.
THAIFEX-World of Food Asia offered trade visitors a multitude of opportunities to identify their potential business partners across 16 different food and hospitality segments, with similar robust performance in World of Seafood, World of Coffee & Tea and World of FoodService.
Says Chris Ooi, Head of Sales & Marketing from Everbest Soya Bean Products SdnBhd, “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 explains, “This may be the first time we have participated at World of Seafood, but the 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 highlights, “The environment was very conducive, as 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 adds, “We have been with THAIFEX-World of Food Asia for more than a decade and the introduction of World of FoodService does take a while to get accustomed to but it has certainly given us leverage.”
Japan – official partner country – presents “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 THAIFEX-World of Food Asia‘s 10-Year Anniversary Welcome Reception. TheJapan 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 other independent companies from various prefectures in Japan.
Mr Toshiharu Uki, Director, Trade Promotion Department of JETRO Bangkok says, “As the partner country this year, THAIFEX-World of Food Asia brought much attention on 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 their outcome. Overall, the returns-on-investment from THAIFEX-World of Food Asia has exceeded our expectations. Next year, we hope to return with more companies.”
ASEAN food industry leaders convening at World of Food Safety ConferenceParallel to THAIFEX-World of Food Asia, the ASEAN Food Industry Thought Leaders Panel brought together global opinion leaders and food industry experts sharing their views on building capabilities to overcome food safety and security challenges, both domestically and internationally. The speakers comprised of top industry leaders, including PojAramwattananont, President of Sea Value Company Ltd and Hester Chew, Group CEO of McDonalds. They were joined by Yves Rey, Chairman, Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and Corporate Quality General Manager, Danone Group, France, as well as PisanPongsapitch, Deputy Secretary General of The National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards, and moderator John Spink, Director, Food Fraud Initiative (USA). Attendees to the ASEAN Food Industry Thought Leaders Panel included many C-level executives from the Thai as well as the wider Asian food & beverage industry.
In addition, the 2nd World of Food Safety Conference presented a strong panel of speakers over 2 days, presenting their research and case studies, as well as exchanging valuable insights with overseas delegates. In addition to thelocal specialists, the conference featured 15 senior international experts who covered an extensive range of Food Safety related topics including:
- AEC 2015 impact on global and regional food scenario, Supplier Management, Food Safety and Recalls
- Achieving GFSI certification in developing countries
- Microbial contamination control and Product Counterfeiting as a logistics disruption threat to a supply chain
- Balancing Sustainable Practices and Profitability and many more industry relevant topics.
The conference once again set high standards for in-depth interactions and high level know-how sharing among leading food safety specialists and practitioners.
Competitions Galore
The 3rd Thailand Ultimate Chef Challenge proved to be another outstanding success at this year’s THAIFEX-World of Food Asia! The competition, which has grown from strength to strength, boasted the highest number of competitors to date. With more than 500 chefs, the ratio of international to local participants was a close 30:70 ratio this year. This included 153 overseas competitors from Australia, Cambodia, China, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Taiwan, Slovakia, Vietnam and 356 Thai participants from 20 provinces.
Thailand Ultimate Chef Challenge 2014 Results – See APPENDIX A
Says Willment Leong, Organising Chairman, “This competition has become one of the most important culinary competitions in Thailand. The chefs are looking forward to joining this competition not just to win, but also to learn. With world-class judges with us, this has created a very positive atmosphere.”
At the 2nd Roasters’ Choice Award, 56 entries of beans were submitted by coffee producers from Asia. The panel of coffee specialists included, Michael De Renovard, TutiHahanahMochtar, Hide Nishimura, Felix Wong and Chen Chia-Sheng, were in search for the best coffee beans in Asia.
Head Judge Michael De Renovard explains, “This year’s submissions go to show the diversity and potential of the coffee bean growing industry in Asia. Each has its own distinctive characteristics, and will make an interesting cup of coffee.”
