Everything you need to know about Gulfood

The 2010 installment of Gulfood in Dubai is set to be the biggest in its history, with 45,000 industry professionals expected to attend and the launch of the exhibition’s first conference

It’s that time of year again when clued-up hospitality and F&B professionals flock to Dubai International Convention Centre (DICEC) to meet with suppliers, debate industry issues and unearth new trends.

They are, of course, heading to Gulfood, an exhibition which in 2010, looks set to be bigger and better than ever before.

Organiser Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) claims this year’s installment of the show — the Middle East’s largest food, drink, food service and hospitality exhibition — which will take place from February 21-24 — is set to attract more than 45,000 industry professionals with an “unprecedented” 3300 companies exhibiting this year.

DWTC has underlined the importance of Gulfood by highlighting the GCC’s rise to fame in the global food and drink arena.

Considered a key emerging market alongside the likes of China, Russia and Latin America, countries in the GCC, North Africa and India have been earmarked as “windows of opportunity” for the industry according to the 2009 A.T.Kearney Global Retail Development Index.

“With almost 90% of Middle East countries dependent on food imports, tremendous opportunity exists for food importers, packagers and manufacturers of food processing machinery to generate bigger, better, business at Gulfood,” said DWTC CEO Helal Saeed Almarri.

“Gulfood provides an ideal platform for businesses involved in every segment of the food and beverage industry to both source and showcase their products and services.We are working closely with our most valued trade clients to provide a package of measures to increase the value-offering at the show,” he said.

Gulfood 2010 will be the biggest event in the show’s 15-year history, taking up one million square feet of dedicated space while extra components such as Restaurant & Café Middle East and Ingredients Middle East run concurrently with the show.

This year also marks the introduction of a number of value-added initiatives such as the inaugural Gulfood Conference, which complements the Dubai International Food Safety Conference — organised by the Dubai Municipality to address food safety systems, regulations and best practices.

Also new this year is the launch of the Gulfood Majlis Club — a platform for senior industry professionals to network and develop new business opportunities.

Additional features include Emirates International Salon Culinaire in association with the Emirates Culinary Guild, where more than 1300 chefs compete in front of a panel of 25 international judges, and the inaugural Gulfood Awards, which will reward the achievements and innovations of the region’s food and drink industry.

Almarri says the line up of events at Gulfood 2010 proved the show continued to “support industry needs, promote knowledge exchange and recognise excellence in the industry”.

Who’s attending?

Many of the region’s F&B directors with whom Hotelier spoke said they intended to visit Gulfood.

IHG Dubai Festival City director of F&B Kieron Hunt said his entire team would be attending in order to source “new and innovative ideas” and “smarter and more efficient tools and products” to enhance the complex’s dining experiences.

“By attending this year, we hope to strengthen our key account supplier relationships, identify new ideas that will cross over to guest experiences and aim to demonstrate the importance of supplier/customer relationships by sharing information and feedback,” he said.

However, some F&B professionals such as Tolga Sezer Lacin, complex executive assistant manager food & beverage, Mina Seyahi Complex, Dubai, said he had stopped attending all such exhibitions.

“I don’t know Gulfood and to be honest, all these exhibitions are the same — too commercial and too boring for me,” he told Hotelier.

“I have done four hotel openings and when choosing your equipment, you have to be creative and go out and find artists to work with — something you don’t find in a factory. Where the budget allows, I always go for tailormade options.”

Tolga Sezer Lacin
Complex executive assistant manager food & beverage, Mina Seyahi Complex, Dubai

“I believe there will be a rationalisation of pricing in 2010. Restaurants will serve smaller portions at the same quality and reduce prices. Instead of working with a 50% profit and an empty restaurant, restaurants will work with a 30% profit and a full restaurant.”

Trend prediction: QUALITY

Kieron Hunt
Director of F&B, IHG Dubai Festival City

“The trend in F&B for 2010 for the Middle East will be to continue delivering high quality but with reduced prices and costs. As a result, sourcing great produce that is local to the region will also be a key trend. There will also be more effort made to retain business through loyalty programmes and benefit cards compared to previous years.”

Restaurant & Café Middle East

Restaurant and Café Middle East is an exhibition showcasing products and services dedicated to the business of restaurants and cafés. Participating exhibitors range from interior and design specialists to hardware and technology providers. The idea behind this show-within-a-show is to provide restaurant and café buyers with a one-stop shop for hunting down trends, products and innovations.

Ingredients Middle East

Ingredients Middle East is the only event in the region that covers every aspect of this complex sector. Leading companies from around the world, who cultivate, extract, process or supply raw materials and ingredients used in the manufacturing of finished food, beverage and health food products, will be on hand, to discuss and share their knowledge.

The inaugural Gulfood Conference

The inaugural Gulfood Conference will take place during the four-day exhibition and bring together international experts to discuss future trends, critical issues and operational best practice in the food and beverage industry under the title: ‘Global trends in food, beverage and processing’.

The structure combines keynote speakers, seminars and networking sessions giving delegates the chance to debate and exchange views.

Key topics include global market trends in food; practical pricing strategies, how firms can insulate themselves from future volatility; product certification; training and innovation in the bakery sector; innovations for small businesses and market trends in the beverage and dairy industries, while specialist sessions span topics such as IT; food and drink processing; ingredients; packaging trends; food and drink consumer trends; business management; import/export; Halal; and marketing.

The speaker line-up:

• Elizabeth Martins, head of MENA, Business Monitor International
• Jan N Bergman, president EMEA, The NutraSweet Company
• Virginie De Beco, regional marketing director, Del Monte
• Richard Hall, chairman, Zenith
• Sudhakar Tomar, chair person, CICILS-IPTIC (World Pulses Organisation)
• Shonil Chande, food and drink analyst, Business Monitor International
• Frans Kampers, research co-ordinator Bionanotechnologies, Dubai Municipality/Wageningen UR

For more information visit www.gulfood.com/conference