OREANDA-NEWS. December 9, 2011. Atakent Exhibition Centre in Almaty was successfully hosting the 14th Central Asian International Food Exhibition WorldFood Kazakhstan 2011.

The event was organised by Iteca Kazakhstan Exhibition Company jointly with its international partners from Germany, United Kingdom, China, UAE, Poland, and Turkey.

This year, WorldFood Kazakhstan had an exhibition and conference format to combine four exhibitions, two conferences and the traditional tasting competition, The Best Product. Topics of the exhibitions were “WorldFood Kazakhstan – Food Industry”, “AgroWorld Kazakhstan – Agriculture”, “KazUpack – Packaging, Tare, Label and Printing” and “WaterTech Central Asia – Water and Water Technologies”. The two conferences during the exhibitions were successful, too: AgriCA “Cattle Breeding, Poultry Farming and Veterinary Medicine” and the Packers’ Conference.

The combined WorldFood Kazakhstan 2011 Exhibition presented 320 direct and indirect exhibitors from 38 countries. National stands were presented by Poland, Germany, and France. The event again demonstrated a steady growth and high performance. As compared with the previous year, the exhibition area has had a 20% increase. The number of registered specialists who attended the exhibitions was 5,916, or 20% more than in the previous year. The exhibitors’ geographical representation has grown too thanks to first-timers from Azerbaijan, Chile, Egypt, Denmark, Hungary, Iran, Kuwait, Moldova, Norway, and Serbia.

Of all exhibitors, 65% are regular participants, while 35% were first-timers. In 2011, tea and coffee distributors as well as firms represented in the “Ingredients” section demonstrated high performance.

According to the exhibitors’ poll, more than 25% signed contracts during the exhibition, and more than 85% found promising contacts.

Mikhail Terekhov, Director of Kholodom-Import LLP: “We participate in this exhibition on a regular basis. We met new clients and existing partners at the stand. This year’s WorldFood Kazakhstan was successful for our company as we signed new equipment purchase contracts. We supply components for refrigerating equipment and air conditioners, as well as compressors. We therefore met new clients and received a lot of supply requests. Hopefully, they will be effective.”

Agnieszka Kukaszewska, Director, Regional Development Department, Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency: “Our organisation is one of the few investment promotion agencies which provide ‘one-stop shop’ services, including post-investment service. One of our objectives is also to promote Polish product and service brands. At this exhibition, 20 Polish companies from Eastern Poland took part with one national stand. Manufacturers of equipment for food and confectionery industries, fruit, vegetables, cheese and food supplement producers came to Almaty for a busy agenda. During the exhibition, a contract was signed for supply of cheeses and chips. I think we will do it again the next year and take part in World Food Kazakhstan 2012.”

Visitors’ opinion of the exhibitions is also valuable. Baurzhan Ismailov said: “I have a dairy farm in Pavlodar. It is therefore important for me to see an effective combination of the exhibitions on agriculture and food industry. I found some interesting suggestions to improve cow breeds. We also plan to open a confectionary shop, and so I met respective equipment manufacturers at the exhibition. It is great to see that companies not only sell equipment but also provide the whole post-sale service package. I would also like to produce semi-finished products (pelmeni, manty, etc.), and so I purchased a special machine for that. Thank you for this event. I don’t even know how I would have found suppliers and equipment manufacturers on my own, or how long that would have taken me.”

Every stand featured new products and innovative solutions. Visitors learned about new energy-efficient equipment in bread production, new flavours from famous food and drink producers, packing machines, revolutionary solutions in cattle and poultry vaccination and growing, etc.

“It is our first time at WorldFood Kazakhstan, and we are happy with the way the event is organised. We presented one of our new products to visitors and exhibitors: the concentrate used to make muffins, cakes, pies and biscuit oil semi-finished products. Besides, we brought a few brands of gels, fillings, bread, confectionery mixes and emulsions for baking-case oiling. We met a lot of our colleagues at the exhibition and new clients. Representatives of dozens of companies left their potential cooperation requests. We will scrutinise their questionnaires, and Berta Group may establish business relations with some of them. I would like to make a special note that we did find some entities at the exhibition that we could collaborate with in supply of raw materials we need,” said Yevgenia Medvedeva, Head of Technology Department, Berta Russian Research & Production Association.

In 2011, the Professional Tasting Competition The Best Product of WorldFood Kazakhstan acquired an international status. Participants of the closed tasting of food and alcoholic drinks, traditionally held during the exhibition for 13 years, included companies from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. A total of 25 companies had supplied their competition applications for 91 product items, and 28 product items from 24 companies won. For the full list of the tasting competition winners, please visit http://www.worldfood.kz/ru/results2011.

Official support for the exhibitions was provided by the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, Committee for Water Resources under the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, KAZAGRO National Managing Holding, Almaty City Administration, Union of Poultry Farmers, Union of Farmers, Kazakhstan Meat and Dairy Union, as well as diplomatic missions of the exhibiting countries.

The next WorldFood Kazakhstan will take place in a year, on 6-9 November 2012, in Atakent Exhibition Centre pavilions in Almaty.