Food fair becomes launching pad for new products

SMEs meet exciting prospects at a food fair

New food products from small enterprises made a strong presence at the recent 4th International Food Exhibition (IFEX) Philippines, an annual government led trade show for the food industry.

“The trade show allowed small enterprises to strengthen their position in the local and international market,” said Toni Nanola of YY Sea International Corporation, a manufacturer of spanish-style sardines and olive oil variants – two of the best-selling food products of the company at the fair.

“We received a total booked order of about 41 million pesos. We also received trade inquiries on toll packing, direct export and joint ventures,” added Nanola. “In addition, we were also able to export our products to Saudi, Dubai, Canada, United States, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, China, and Korea.”

Another company Chanos Chanos introduced new products like the bangus sisig, bangus tinapa cheese spread, and bangus liver pate and received serious trade inquiries from highly interested buyers.

Aside from providing food manufacturers the opportunity to network with major retailers, the show also served to survey the tastes and preferences of consumers and identify potential products for marketing locally and internationally.

Puto seko cookies (coconut cream-based) from Marky’s Primebake Corporation were also a best seller during the fair. The company secured about 300, 000 pesos worth of orders through the show. Buyers from the United States and the Middle East also sought distributorship of MPC’s products.

Cormel Foods’ sukang iloko also caught the interest of buyers from California as well as Japan, and the Middle East. “Sixty percent of our buyers sought sukang iloko and we are hopeful that
we’ll have more orders because of the number of buyers we met.”

IFEX is organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the export promotion arm of the Department of Trade and Industry that serves as a convergence point for food exporters and key foreign and local buyers. The show also features the Partner Region Program that provides opportunities to the featured region to market their products. This program is co-organized together with the Department of Science and Technology, San Miguel Packaging Products, Philippine Trade Training Center, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Tourism.

The fair is sought-after by prominent buyers of Philippine products all over the world. Some of the important foreign buyers who went to IFEX this year were: Asian Commodities (United States); TNT Supermarket (Canada); Manning Impex (UK); Almaya Group (Middle East); and Nishida Kogyo Corp (Japan).

Aside from bringing together SMEs, the fair also served as a launching pad for new food products with potential in the market.

“We were able to launch our sautéed bagoong in different variants through IFEX. We were able to close deals with buyers from the United States, Canada, Dubai, Hawaii, Guam, Qatar, Hong Kong, Japan, and New Zealand. Aggregately, we are looking at initial orders of about 4,000 cases a month,” said Joric Eleazar, vice president for operations of Max’s QC Group of Companies.

Spicy tamarind balls from Gold Seed Tamarind, canned goat meat from Fortress Foods Corp.and microwaveable saba bananas also met important trade inquiries for distribution locally and abroad.

“IFEX is just one step forward towards marketing and promoting our food products from SMEs. These products are manufactured by our SMEs with dedication and passion and we need to support them so they can become competitive in the global market,” said Trade Assistant Secretary Fe Agoncillo-Reyes, executive director of CITEM.