The first edition of the trade fair held in Dubai offered participating delegates and exhibitors the opportunity to explore the food industry in the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia. These included a sector-specific bakery focus on the cooling and freezing processes, which were presented during the Bakery Innovations Summit.
With more than 1,000 international suppliers participating in the specialist B2B platform, the inaugural Gulfood Manufacturing show dedicated to the food processing trade gathered more than 10,000 regional and global trade visitors as well as 1,500 delegates on November 9-11 at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) this year. With Gulf Cooperation Council imports forecast to reach USD 53.1 billion by 2020, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Gulfood Manufacturing highlighted the region’s business potential as a manufacturing and processing hub – while the annual Gulfood held in February focuses on “finished foods.”
A sector-specific spin-off of February’s annual Gulfood trade show, the three-day Gulfood Manufacturing hosted more than 1,100 companies from 56 countries – including 26 official country pavilions – and attracted 26,329 visitors from 156 countries.
Organized as a tailor-made platform to drive investment in the regional food processing sector, the inaugural show ran over 50,000 sqm of DWTC exhibition space.
“The fact Gulfood Manufacturing was so big and popular on its first outing highlights the demand for a specialist show in this sector,” said His Excellency Abdul Rahman Saif Al Ghurair, Chairman, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “The industry is always interested in discovering the next big thing in food processing and this exhibition opens up doors for businesses to expand and learn from each other.”
The Bakery Innovations Summit
The specialist two-day Bakery Innovations Summit presented by Bakery Initiatives (Netherlands), was held during the show, as was the Food Factory of the Future – a showcase of food manufacturing technologies presented by Germany’s United Food Technology (UFT).
Health and well-being as well as food and bakery business trends and solutions were among the topics presented at the Bakery Innovations Summit, which also included a focus on processes, particularly cooling and freezing and their influence on the bakery market overall.
One of the highlights of the “frozen” focus of the summit provided insights into how the frozen process is changing the bakery market. “The question is not how it is changing the market, but how it will keep on changing it,” summarized Oliver Sergent, Mecatherm’s CEO, as the process can provide “fantastic business opportunities” – by solving logistics problems, with the added benefit that it does not require prior bakery specialization and, at the same time, helps fight food waste.
Vacuum cooling was one of the hot topics during the summit as well – detailing functional principles and advantages of the process, as it helps bakers achieve product structure, volume and look similar to those of freshly baked goods. Another advantage emphasized by Patrick Duss (senior partner consultant at Avenidas, Switzerland) in his presentation was the faster production times, through either batch or continuous cooling systems.
Clean label and worldwide food trends were also addressed during the summit, as well as opportunities in industrial and artisan bakers’ partnerships and updates on the world grain market.
Innovations at the stands
The latest ingredients, processing machinery, packaging equipment and logistics, including warehousing and cold chain solutions were showcased by food processing industry heavyweights at the stands. The show ended on a high note as feedback from food processors, either exhibitors or visitors, is concerned. “We sold three of our small, two-flap sealing machines, a starter model for companies looking to manufacture food products, frozen foods, desserts and bakery goods, and two of our high-speed, fully-automated systems – a high-end production machine more suitable for higher volumes – to buyers from the UAE, Saudi, Qatar and Lebanon,” said Richard Kitchen, CSO, T Freemantle Ltd.
With 24 official country pavilions spread across the show-floor, Gulfood Manufacturing also hosted the global food industry’s largest-ever Hosted Buyer Program, an initiative designed to highlight the region’s rapidly expanding food and beverage manufacturing and production infrastructure to influential buyers from countries including Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Iran and Nigeria, among others.