Food fair to tap new Saudi opportunities

The Saudi food, hotel & hospitality Arabia Fair 2014 was opened on Sunday by Director General for Agriculture Affairs of Makkah Region Hassan bin Obaid Sangoof.
Saudi Arabia’s 19th International event for food, beverages and catering, hotel equipment, supplies and services welcomed a large number of visitors from around the region on its opening day at the Jeddah Center for Forums and Events.
The event features more than 400 exhibition stands from Bangladesh, Bahrain, China, Cyprus, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, the US and local companies. “The food industry has grown tremendously,” said Sangoof as he inaugurated this year’s show accompanied by diplomats, dignitaries, businessmen and experts from the food and hospitality sector.
He added: “More events like this show should take place in various parts of Saudi Arabia because exhibitions like these help us grow our economy.”
The “highly specialized” exhibition is also playing host to open cooking championship and art de table competition, a contest of skill, finesse and presentation from the region's most talented chefs. A number of chefs from various leading hotels and hotel management institutes are competing at this year’s contest; they will be awarded for their endeavors on the last day of the trade show.
The competition is sponsored and co organized by Nestle, Saudi Arabian Chefs Table Circle and World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS).
The exhibition aims at being the right channel allowing vendors and suppliers, as well as hospitality professionals to come together to tap mutually beneficial business opportunities, said Zahoor Siddique, VP of Al-Harithy Company for Exhibitions (ACE), which has organized the event.
The exhibition will run until Wednesday (April 16) from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.