Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/ Gulf NewsArchives

Visitors try chocolates at Altinmarkastand, on the day one of Gulfood Manufacturing 2017 at Dubai World Trade Centreand Exhibition halls, Dubai.

Dubai

The world’s largest annual food andhospitality exhibition, according to its organisers, returns to Dubai onSunday, with exhibitors from across the globe assembling to sell their seeds,cereals, and sourdough to large corporate customers, such as hotel chains andairlines. 

Running from February 18 until February 22,the event is taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre, with the 23rdedition of the show featuring over 5,000 local, regional and internationalexhibitors hawking their wares, and 97,000 attendees bearing witness to thefood industry’s latest trends and technology.

Specialised segments of the show will focuson the Halal food industry, estimated in recent research to grow to a $10trillion market by 2030, a chef competition, and dedicated areas for beverages,health and wellness foods, and fats and oils.

Gulfood launched in 1987 in Dubai, and hassince established itself as a key player in the international food market. Thecompetition will be fierce as participants look to sign large bi-lateral tradeagreements and take advantage of a tourism sector set to grow to 1.5 billionpeople by 2020.

Designed to highlight eight of the biggestfood commodity trading sectors, the event will also host specialised halls for:Dairy, free-from foods, pulses, grains and cereals, meat and poultry, powerbrands and world food.

The Emirates Culinary Guild InternationalSalon Culinaire, a cooking contest, is a staple of the event.

The annual competition, one of the world’sbiggest, will showcase more than 1,000 chefs, judged by an expert panelmandated by the World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS).

Trade delegations will visit from countriessuch as Pakistan, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia.

Possessing a large Muslim population, thetravelling delegation of 23 Philippine companies say they hope to takeadvantage of the growing Halal industry, connecting with large groups such ashotels and catering companies that can provide reach and network.

“We have carefully primed a roster of 23top exporting companies in a grand showcase of the Philippines’ best productselections in the world’s biggest trade platform for food and ingredients,” theManila Times quoted Philippine trade department official Lourdes Mediran assaying.

In its participation at Gulfood, theDepartment of Trade and Industry ? Centre for International Trade Expositionsand Missions (DTI-CITEM) says that it is looking to generate at least $110million in export deals as the Philippines seeks to grow its 5 per cent shareof the global halal market.

Similarly, Pakistan says that it will send13 businesses in the agriculture industry, showing off halal meats, off-seasonvegetables, and kinnow mandarins, networking with international buyers andsellers during their time in Dubai.

The food and beverage sector in the Gulf isexpected to continue to grow by 7.1 per cent annually, reaching $196 billion by2021, according to MENA Research Partners, a regional research company.

The company says that the market iscurrently valued at around $130 billion.

As a percentage, Saudi Arabia aloneaccounts for more than half of that, followed by the UAE with 31 per cent.

Link-> http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/tourism/international-food-buyers-and-sellers-meet-in-dubai-with-focus-on-halal-1.2174991