With some 7,000 international exhibitors and an increase in trade visitors to more than 160,000 from 187 countries, Anuga 2015 broke its own records and clearly defined its position as the world’s leading international food and beverage trade fair.

The two-yearly food fair is acknowledged as the world’s most important food and beverage trade fair.

There are ten separate trade fairs on the one site – Anuga Fine Food, Anuga Frozen Food, Anuga Meat, Anuga Chilled and Fresh Food, Anuga Dairy, Anuga Bread, Bakery, Hot Beverages, Anuga Drinks, Anuga Organic, Anuga Food Service and Anuga RetailTec. The food fair also expanded along trend themes – what is in now and what is coming.

Robyn Ekstrom, Trade Promotion Adviser for PT&I Geneva said, “I think we would all agree, Anuga 2015 was like nothing any of us have ever experienced before, even when compared it to its counterpart exhibition, SIAL Paris. With a virtually constant stream of high quality trade visitors over the entire five days, the opportunity to capture buyer, distributor and retailer interest was unparalleled.”

Speaking about Pacific Island participants at the fair she said, “I’m really thrilled, particularly that our Virgin Coconut Oil exporters and first time European co-exhibitors Tavulomo Coconut Processing (Fiji) and Amruqa (PNG) embraced the challenge, honed and targeted their marketing messages and really made the most of this opportunity.”

Chris Wyllie, CEO of Tavulomo said, “It was a great pleasure working on the PT&I Anuga booth and it has put Tavulomo Coconut Processing Ltd, Fiji, and the other Pacific Island exhibitors on the world map. This was a huge success.”

Theresa Arek, Director of Amruqa said, “The five days at ANUGA were such an awesome experience. The opportunity to exhibit Pacific products to thousands of potential European and international buyers and customers was just wonderful. “

Both Tavulomo and Amruqa were assisted with funding for their participation by SPC – IACT, something that Arek highlights. “This also shows what can be achieved through partnership and cooperation among our agencies and businesses. Market opportunity is out there and we in the Pacific are not in competition with each other.

“The exhibition of virgin coconut oil made in Papua New Guinea and Fiji was such that at the end of the day each product had its own story which highlighted its individual characteristics. Buyers and distributors from Germany and countries including Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, India and China were all interested in our VCO. This has shown that there are many different markets available.”

Building upon the successful commercial linkages established at SIAL 2014, companies returning as co-exhibitors in Anuga 2015 included Tonga’s Heilala Vanilla represented by their European distributor, Kristoffer Drachmann. He highlighted the value of a consistent Pacific Islands presence and the growing recognition of the PT&I brand in Europe. “We participated on the PT&I booth at SIAL 2014 in Paris and the PT&I umbrella brand was recognised by many Anuga visitors this year. Being part of the PT&I booth is very attractive. It gets attention from the visitors, brings potential clients from one Pacific company to another and lets us share knowledge and experiences such as export practices, sales approaches and product developments.”

“We managed to get around sixty qualified leads from Europe and around 10 leads from countries and companies outside Europe. During Anuga, we got a handful of order inquiries (worth €25.000-30.000) and have arranged meetings with two distributors and one major ice cream manufacturer. This is a very satisfying outcome for us” Drachmann said.

Anuga 2017 will take place for the 34th time in Cologne, Germany.