Speciality & Fine Food Asia Conclude Second Year With Bigger & Better Results

News From : DagangHalal.com (03 Sep 2018)

The second edition of Speciality & Fine Food Asia (SFFA) welcomed more than 3,300 visitors from the food & beverage and hospitality industries across Southeast Asia, with 160 local and international exhibiting companies and eight national pavilions from 20 countries for the three-day shows and related events on 17 - 19 July 2018. The trade-only shows saw buyers and exhibitors in a focused environment - making valuable contacts, signing multi-million dollar deals and learning from industry experts through a series of engaging panel discussions, cooking demos by star chefs, and beverage masterclasses by tea masters and more.

"It was a truly invigorating experience at SFFA this year," says Christopher McCuin, Managing Director of Montgomery Asia, which organised the shows. "We listened to visitors' and exhibitors' feedback from our first year and improved on creating more onsite programming, and finding the right experts to speak on topics that were important to them. For the first time this year, we collaborated with industry partners such as Singapore Halal Culinary Federation, FoodBev Media, The Bar Awards and Restaurant Association of Singapore to co-organise competitions and workshops at the shows which provided more depth and relevance to the F&B industry. It's exciting to see the shows go from strength to strength and we look forward to creating an even bigger impact in 2019."

The 2018 shows saw several new event highlights such as the inaugural Asia Food Innovation Awards, the launch of e2i's ULeap F&B modules for the local industry, the inaugural Investor Pitching Series, where over 10 companies live-pitched their ideas to a panel of industry leaders including representatives from MasterCard, Golden Equator Consulting, The Lo & Behold Group, UOB, Enterprise Singapore, and more.

Chef Isaac Mchale of Michelin-starred The Clove Club - also the highest ranked UK restaurant on The World's 50 Best Restaurants - headlined our show this year for his first official visit to Singapore with 2 inspiring demos at Fine Food Live.

Other presenting chefs this year included renowned cookbook author, Christopher Tan, Javad Ahamad from Punjab Grill, and Alexander McKinstry from Viceroy Bali. Chef Neo Jun Hao, the newly-minted winner for Singapore's Disciples Escoffier Young Talent - the culinary competition for young chefs under the age of 25 - conducted his live practice run at the Show before representing the country at the Asia Finals in Hong Kong this September.

There were four panel discussions held over the three-day show, with experts including Chef Julien Royer from two Michelin-starred Odette, World's 50 Best Restaurants TasteHunters Cheryl Tiu and Lennard Yeong, Dinesh Balasingam, Chief Operating Officer of Chope, and representatives from DHL, Edelman, Ernst & Young, GrabFood, KPMG, Zenith Global and more who took to the stage. Captivating the audience with their engaging discussions and insights, the panelists shared real-life experiences and views on practical issues ranging from 'The Fine Art of (Conscious) Dining' - where they explored the definition of conscious dining and how that fits into the fine dining space, 'Global F&B Outlook', 'Going Digital' and 'From Farm to Kitchen'.

The rich content and innovative highlights drew in quality visitors which delighted the exhibitors. First-time exhibitor Healsi Water sealed one of the largest deals in the company's history at the show. "The shows are very impressive," says Pedros Simar, Director, Healsi Water. "We're definitely coming back next year with a bigger presence!"

Luc Fabry, Investment and Trade Commissioner of Flanders Investment and Trade commented: "The show was valuable for Flanders Investment and Trade - Embassy of Belgium. We represented 11 companies and each of the companies had a number of valuable leads. It is worth it to come back next year!"

Clay Jenkin, Events Manager of NCR Silver echoed similar sentiments. "It has been an excellent show and I can now say that we will be back again next year! We have definitely benefited from exhibiting at the show and our products were viewed by many visitors, which was our ultimate objective. We also generated new business leads, which have led to sales. On top of that, we have raised our industry awareness, and we are expecting to build on this in the months and years to come!"

Speciality & Fine Food Asia will take place again next year from 17 - 19 July 2019.

For more information, please visit www.speciality-asia.com