Premier Asian food expo woos India's hospitality sector

New Delhi, March 16 : With displays of food production, technology, culinary wares, latest hospitality designs, hospitality trends and global food and wine contests - the Food and Hotel Asia 2010 exhibition in Singapore next month is expecting greater participation of the Indian food and hospitality industry.

"This year, we expect more people to attend the event. So far, we have only 594 official visitors' confirmation from India and just six participating companies. But we want at least 800 Indian companies to take part in the business fair and maximum buyers' footfalls," Stephen Tan, chief executive of Singapore Exhibition Services Private Limited, Tuesday told the media in the capital, unveiling a brief model of the four-day festival.

The six participating Indian companies are Aerolux India Limited (carpet and blinds designers), Agrigold Foods and Farms Products Limited (processed food manufacturers), Desmond International Limited (linen makers), R and D Engineers (baking equipment makers), Raj Tandoor Corporation (tandoor makers) and Ushodaya Enterprises (Indian spice and pickle firm).

The biennial Food and Hotel Asia is billed as Asia's largest food and hospitality business show. It will be held April 20-23. Last year, the festival was attended by 52,900 people.

"The consolidation of the events reflects the optimism in the Asian economy - particularly in food, hospitality and travel industries. New trade opportunities are emerging as developing countries from Asia further open their doors to foreign trade and more tourist arrivals because of the lowered airfare by budget carriers. Many hospitality developers have used last year's downturn to upgrade at lower costs," Tan told IANS.

According to the Tourism Satellite Accounting (TSA) Research Report (2009), India is projected to become the fifth largest growing business destination from 2010-2019 with an estimated 7.6 per cent share.

To keep alive the interest of buyers and participants, several competitions like WSA Wine Challenge under the Wine and Spirits Asia 2010, an Asian pastry cup, Asia Barista (coffee blending) Championship and Culinary Challenge for the chefs will see the best of submissions from across the globe, the official from Singapore said. Besides, seminars on energy efficiency in kitchen, food safety and designs will bring experts and practitioners together.

The Indian wine industry is eyeing the event with anticipation.

"Despite a marginal drop in the Indian wine business of 10-15 per cent last year because of the downturn, we expect to recover with a 25-30 per cent projected growth rate this year," Shubhas Arora, president of the Indian Wine Academy, said.

Indian wine has a niche market in Asia, he said.

"The Indian dry wines are popular in Singapore and in the rest of south-east Asia because the region has a large Indian population," Arora, who is on the panel of judges at the WSA Wine Challenge, told IANS.