JEDDAH, 11 May 2007 — The annual food expo opens at the Jeddah International Exhibition and Convention Center on Madinah Road at 1 p.m. on Sunday, featuring national and international participants.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Obaid, deputy minister for agricultural research and development affairs, will preside over the inaugural ceremony billed as Saudi Arabia’s 12th Food, Hotel and Propac Arabia — an international industry showcase.
The expo incorporates food, beverages and catering; hotel equipment, supplies and services; processing, packaging, canning, bottling, labeling and plastics.
The five-day event will feature products and wares from China, Malaysia, Thailand, Iran, Turkey, Italy, Korea, Poland and Singapore along with a large number of major companies from the Kingdom and elsewhere in the Arab world.
“Exhibits include a variety of food, beverages and ingredients from a wide and varied exhibitor profile from across the region and around the world,” Zahoor Siddique, director of exhibitions at Al-Harithy Company for Exhibitions, told the media yesterday.
“Foodstuff new to the Kingdom will be showcased alongside innovations in the hotel and catering trades,” he said, adding that it will be a true one-stop shop for connoisseurs and businessmen alike.
Also on display will be the latest in food processing and packaging technology.
“Originally conceived to complement the food and hotel Arabia exhibition, Propac Arabia has successfully established a reputation as the leading event in the Kingdom for food technology processing and packaging,” he said.
Running alongside the event will be a “top chef” feature that will be held in a custom-built auditorium in the exhibition complex. Now in its fourth edition, this feature showcases culinary skills at the highest level within a TV cooking show format that attracts visitors.
Co-organized by Promo Vision, the top chef this year presents the best chefs selected from the finest hotels and restaurants to compete live in front of the audience, who will also witness a “live cooking show” and “Art de table” contest full of fragrance, spices and flavor on May 13-17.
Siddique said that while the Kingdom remains a lucrative consumer market for imported finished products, it is also a growing market for ingredients, machinery, equipment, spare parts and technical services for its rapidly expanding domestic manufacturing base.