20 things you didn't know about Gulfood

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.

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.

11 FMCG
Some 20 years after the inaugural exhibition, in 2007 the number of exhibitors at the show passed the 2,600 mark — a far cry from the 65 exhibitors that assembled two decades earlier. Now the largest gathering of professionals involved in the FMCG sector in the Middle East, the 12th Gulfood covered an expansive 50,000 square metres and attracted 37,618 trade visitors from 140 countries.

12 SOLD OUT!
Occupying the entire Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) in 2008 — including the additional 11,000 square metres in Sheikh Rashid and Sheikh Maktoum Halls — the 13th edition of Gulfood completely sold out. The exhibition covered more than 60,000 square metres of space and, for the first time, a waiting list of potential exhibitors was created.

13 Extension
Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Finance Minister and Chairman of Dubai World Trade Centre, opened the show in 2009 and announced a new extension of exhibition space at DWTC would commence construction immediately. The extension ensured DWTC facilities would provide one million square feet in overall covered exhibition space — catering for even more Gulfood growth.

14 Awards
The Gulfood Awards were launched in 2010 to celebrate the show’s 15th anniversary.

15 MICE Market
The show’s contribution to Dubai’s burgeoning MICE sector was detailed in an Economic Impact Report conducted for the 2011 event, which showed Gulfood generated and estimated US $150.8 million (AED 553.4 million) in Total Value Added Impact to the Dubai economy in the form of direct spend, indirect contribution and induced contribution.

16 Business Deals
With a mammoth 68,681 trade visitors flocking to the show in 2012, the Gulfood post-show survey revealed 31% of exhibitors made more than 10% of their annual business over the show’s four days.

17 Five Days
The 18th edition of Gulfood in 2013 marked its final four-day outing after His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, issued a directive to expand the event to five days from 2014 onwards.

18 Spin-off Show
In an historic first, food processing and manufacturing providers were strategically removed from the refreshed, five-day ‘finished foods’ show and handed a dedicated spin-off event in Gulfood Manufacturing, which debuted in November 2014. The decision opened up an additional 27,000m² of freed-up floor-space for 4500 exhibitors to trade and explore international networking opportunities with 81,622 visitors.

19 In 2015 ...
Gulfood 2015 will span 127,000m² of exhibition space including a purpose-built, 23,000m2, temporary structure — the largest-of-its-type regionally.

20 Progress
More than 85,000+ visitors from over 170 countries are expected to attend 2015’s event, with up to 4800 exhibitors from 120 countries.