Ukrainian Food Expo took place on November 23–24, 2017 in Kyiv (EC “KyivExpoCenter”) and turned to be the international food and trade show that attracted 85 exhibitors and 2 thousand visitors from 39 countries of the world.
Trade show covered a wide range of food products: meat and dairy products, fruits and vegetables, confectionery and snacks, honey, nuts, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, fine foods and others. Moreover, the exhibitors were suppliers of equipment, technologies and services for food industry.
Among business visitors were foreign buyers and traders, distributors, wholesaler and retailers, HoReCa sector, grocery markets and convenience stores, farmers, cooperatives and final consumers.
Both foreign business and national retail and HoReCa were keen on Ukrainian food products.
The other advantage was matchmaking with foreign buyers and traders. The most fruitful negotiations were held with delegation from Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Georgia, Denmark, India, Italy, China, Lithuania, Moldova, Nigria, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and Japan.
Within the framework of trade show there were held 7 business conferences and congresses targeted at sharing successful export experience and best practices, new business ideas and communicating with experienced experts, marketers and successful businessmen.
Conference “Meat Business” was devoted to the analytical review of meat market and the latest consumer trends. The participants learnt more about benchmarking principles and the advanced processing technologies as well as potential export markets.
The market expert Valeriy Poguliaev focused on the issue of adjusting to the global consumer trends. The share of population who paid attention to prices rather than quality increased to 89% for recent years. Consequently, meat and meat-products exporters have to develop several brands for different consumer segments.
Andriy Mokriakov, Pro-Consulting Company advised to focus on the production of niche products, for instance, game meat.
Conference “Confectionery & Bakery” brought together professionals of confectionery industry to discuss the trends of market development, mainly how trend of healthy lifestyle and economic situation would impact on export sales.
The speakers shared successful business cases of confectionery export to South African, Asian, Northern American and European markets. Bogdan Shapoval, General Director of Ukrainian Food Export Board recommended not to hesitate and enter to Asian markets with unusual for that region chocolate and chocolate products.
The highlight of Ukrainian Beef Congress was presentation of business plans on young cattle fattening and slaughtering, beef processing jointly developed by FAO and EBRD. Currently, Ukrainian beef export is very poor. However, findings showed that over next 5 years export earnings would amount to $2 billion on condition of professional marketing, deep processing and effective fattening system.
III Congress of Exporters “Ukrainian Food 2017” brought together Ukrainian food manufacturers and distributors who are in search of new export markets. The main focus was made on Asia and Africa. The participants learnt more about successful strategies of promotion to the markets of Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Artem Gudkov, director of PanAfrican Trading Alliance advised Ukrainian food exporters to shift the strategic focus towards Sub-Saharan Africa and then combine their efforts to work on the continent. Joint work should be considered neither as competition but strategical development of partners on the highly potential market.
Conference “Drinks of Ukraine” presented the market review of alcoholic beverages and shared export experience to highly competitive markets of Japan and Canada. The speakers drew attention to the importance of governmental support of Ukrainian wine making by developing new approach to tax system for the industry.
Georgiy Arpentin, Director of National Vine and Wine Bureau shared the experienced of reforming wine making industry of Moldova and admitted that the key to success was withdraw from outdated regulation inherited from the Soviet Union.
Conference “Fish and Seafood” targeted at fishery industry experts. The speakers shared the analytical review of fish market, business cases of aquaculture development in Island and Canada and potential of Ukrainian fishery industry.
Conference “Modern processing of fruits and berries” turned to be a networking platform for players of Ukrainian fruit market. The speakers talked on development strategies, efficient fruit and berry production and critical points of entering the international markets.
Next time Ukrainian Food Expo will be held in November 2018 to bring together experienced suppliers and large retailers, distributors and buyer pools to introduce them to their counterparts in Ukraine for pragmatic business negotiations.
