1 Launch!
In 1987, Gulfood debuted with 65 exhibitors from 13 countries and attracted 1600 specialist trade visitors. It was also called Gulf Food. This name only changed to the brand ‘Gulfood’ we all know today, in 1995.

2 Global Niche
The third edition of the show in 1991 was the first to go truly international with first-time participation from companies based in Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Poland, Denmark, Hong Kong, Iran, Malaysia, Yemen and, finally, the newly-unified Germany (previously only West Germany had participated).

3 Conferences
The first time a conference was held alongside the show was in 1993, with a two-day event seminar on food hygiene, safety and legislation.

4 New Name
Now formally branded as the one-word Gulfood, the fifth event received its first-ever official logo, was extended to four days for the first time and was moved to February to “coincide with the peak purchasing time for the Gulfood market”. The exhibition also extended to three halls to cover a net floor space of 18,000m2 — a 70% increase on the 1993 edition.

5 Breaking Barriers
The seventh edition of Gulfood in 1999 featured a 20% increase in the total number of exhibitors — which crossed the 500 barrier for the first time — and more than 9000 trade visitors.

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6 Five Figures
In 2003, attendance reached five figures for the first time as the ninth edition of Gulfood hosted more than 12,000 trade visitors from 71 countries — equating to more than a third of the nations represented in the United Nations at the time.

7 10th Anniversary
2005 marked the 10th anniversary of the event, and the last biennial edition of the show. It hosted 34 national pavilions — a 30% year-on-year growth.

8 Record
A record 20,000 trade visitors attended Gulfood in its 2005 edition.

9 New Countries
In 2006, the show saw first-time visitors from countries including Tonga, Zambia, Malta, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Botswana, Estonia and the Bahamas, and more history was made as Al ’Ard, a producer of extra virgin olive oil and part of the Anabtawi Group, become the first company from Palestine to participate at Gulfood.

10 Safety Debut
In 2006, we saw the debut of the Dubai International Food Safety Conference with Dubai Municipality.