SPECIAL REPORT: Gulfood 2014 event preview

Gulfood is back and bigger than ever with additional floor space, new pavilions, and an extra day added to the calendar. Some of the 4500 exhibitors tell Hotelier what they hope to achieve at the event and Emirates Culinary Guild president Uwe Micheel reveals why up to 1400 chefs will enter the week’s Salon Culinaire.

Gulfood, the world’s biggest food service, hospitality and retail event for the food and beverage industry, is back for its 19th instalment. Owing to its growing popularity, the event — which will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre from February 23-27, 2014 — has been extended to five days.

The extension follows a directive issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE, and ruler of Dubai, to support the level of show floor business transacted each year.

A record 4500 exhibitors, including more than 300 new companies, will participate at Gulfood 2014 — an increase of 7% on last year. With so much more to see and experience in 2014, Gulfood has added an extra 27,000m2 of floor space to accommodate the growing demand from exhibitors.

The team has also prioritised guest feedback from previous years and will implement new features for delegates such as a new registration hall, aisles that are now double in width, exhibits organised by theme, newly-designed, easier-to-read maps, and a free mobile app and online meeting planner to help delegates book meetings, plan their days, and get around the exhibition.

“Gulfood is a very dynamic fair and the Middle East is an exciting market that is growing very fast. Therefore, participation in this show always proves to be quite captivating. It is a great chance to do business with new customers as well as to meet loyal ones. It also provides a business development opportunity that is hard to find anywhere else,” says La Marquise International’s marketing manager Darya Yurkina.

With GCC food imports forecast to reach US $53.1 billion by 2020 according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Gulfood’s emphasis on the ‘finished food’ market reflects the significant regional business potential for global food and beverage related businesses.

“The Middle East is a key market for Santos. Business is growing here very fast with a lot of interest for our products, especially around the juice and coffee business.

Gulfood is definitively the biggest international show in the Middle East and this is the opportunity for Santos to meet all our partners from the region and eventual new importers from Africa or other countries that we don’t see anywhere else,” says Aurelian Fouquet, president of Santos, a manufacturer of commercial electrical equipment for the F&B industry.

Del Monte’s marketing director MENA Virginie De Beco adds: “Del Monte has identified Gulfood as the perfect platform to showcase our vertically integrated business operations and feature our extensive product portfolio to the key players in our industry throughout the region.
Del Monte is optimistic in securing new leads with new markets and Gulfood will also give us the opportunity to team-up with our current business partners from various MENA markets.”

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INCREASED PARTICIPTION
In order to cater to the 4500-strong exhibitors and more than 80,000 trade visitors expected to attend the show, the venue has also been sectioned into geographic zones to ease navigation and access to country pavilions and individual exhibitors.

The extra floor-space has also enabled 10 new country pavilions to be introduced to Gulfood’s 2014 line-up. Official pavilions participating for the first time include Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Basque County, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Mexico, Romania, and Vietnam.

Saudi Arabia, a key market for imports and exports, will host its own pavilion for the first time at Gulfood, with 14 companies participating this year.

Consumption in the Kingdom is expected to grow 55.3% within the next four years to reach US $70 billion per annum.

Commenting on the decision to host a dedicated pavilion, Saudi Exports Development Authority secretary general Ahmed Alhakbani said: “Gulfood is an important platform for Saudi Arabian companies who are looking for trading partners both in the region and globally.”

“Local food producers, retailers, manufacturers and service providers are enjoying a boom, with market potential increasing every year. We anticipate a busy and productive week of business trading and relationship building,” he added.

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SALON CULINAIRE
One of the highlights of the event, the Emirates Culinary Guild Salon Culinaire, will offer professional chefs and bakers a chance to show off their skills. The event is divided into a series of practical and display-based competitions, which will be judged by a team of more than 30 experts appointed by the World Association of Chefs Societies.

“We are expecting this year anywhere from 1300-1400 competitors,” says Emirates Culinary Guild president Uwe Micheel.

“We have 24 different categories and we have five main trophies — first there is Young Chef of the Year (below 25 years of age) then we have the Pastry Chef, Best Artist, Best Arabic National, and Best Gastronomic Chef,” he explains.

The competition will begin in the Za’abeel Hall, with the first set of displays, followed by a pastry display, and then 16 live display kitchens. The event will also feature a stage for ice carving and other display categories.

The team has also been careful to ensure the competition does not overlap with other culinary competitions hosted in the UAE through various measures such as eliminating team categories in favour of more individual prizes.

“The categories are very similar to last year,” says Micheel. “We have different competitions throughout the year, so that’s why we have no teams. We had teams at the Dubai World Championships in November [2013] where we had the team competitions, so we did not want to duplicate.”

However, while Salon Culinaire is essentially a competition, Micheel stresses the real message for chefs, especially junior chefs, is practicing the craft and honing their skills.

“It’s not the competition... it’s great to win a medal but it’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is that you learn something out of it, you train before, then you go there and you get the feedback from the international judges so you learn what you did well and what you did less well,” he explains.

Micheel is also confident the event will continue to grow from strength to strength, recollecting how the event first began with 70 competitors, and will welcome more than 1300 competing chefs this year.

“I hope and I expect, and actually I am pretty sure that everything will go smoothly because we have a fantastic team working on it. I expect the same level or little bit better standard than last year, and I hope that we have more junior chefs,” claims Micheel.

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KNOWLEDGE FOCUS
The show also maintains its focus on industry knowledge and the exchange of ideas for food-related sectors and this year’s edition will further the cause with the introduction of two new conferences — the World Food Security Summit and the Halal Heroes Conference, which will be held on the sidelines of the event.

Addressing the universal challenge of securing a stable, cost-effective and safe supply of food for the world’s growing population, the World Food Security Summit, which will be held from February 23-24 at the Conrad Dubai, will be the first international conference in the region focused on world food security and will be attended by ministers, government officials, policy makers, and regional and international corporate leaders.

The event has been designed for senior industry professionals to explore strategies that encourage alliances and initiatives to tackle the challenges the food future holds. 

With Muslim populations expected to account for 30% of the global population by 2025 and halal food products already accounting for more than 12% of the global food market — generating an estimated US $640 billion per annum — the Halal Heroes conference will dissect the sector’s considerable growth opportunities for the global food and beverage industry.

The Food Franchising workshop on February 25 will address the growing trend in the region with industry veterans reviewing decision-making challenges as well as trends and opportunities when dealing with a franchise. Topics of discussion at the event will vary from performance measurement guides to marketing strategies and franchise litigation in the UAE.

With a packed agenda, and busier event floor than ever before, Gulfood is set to offer a 360-degree view of the F&B industry.