World Food Kazakhstan: A Focus on the Food Industry

Central Asia’s biggest food industry exhibition, World Food Kazakhstan, which has been held for 13 years in Almaty by Iteca, will take place on 2-5 November in Pavilions 11 and 10 of Atakent Exhibition Centre. The exhibition will combine sections on all the sectors of the food and food processing industry, as well as packaging.

In 2010, 5,000m² of exhibition space at World Food Kazakhstan will be used by about 200 companies from 30 countries to demonstrate their products, equipment and technologies. National stands will be presented by Armenia and Germany. About a third of the exhibition will be local companies. In addition to Kazakhstani companies, World Food Kazakhstan will see a lot of companies from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

The exhibitors come from the following countries: Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine and USA.

The long-standing success of World Food Kazakhstan owes much to its broad coverage of all the segments of the food industry. The World Food section covers food and drinks, World Food Tech includes offerings from all the leading suppliers of equipment for the food industry, and manufacturers and distributors of ingredients, supplements and spices are brought together in the Ingredients section.

Unlike previous years, this year there has been a 37% increase in the number of companies in the World Food section presenting finished products – vegetables, fruit, confectionary, dairy and meat products, juices, teas, coffee, canned fish, olive oil, etc. The Ingredients sector has increased by 40%.

One of the most important additions to World Food Kazakhstan 2010 is the new Halal Products section. The exhibition will include seminars by the Kazakhstan Association of the Halal Industry for consumers and companies wanting to adapt their facilities to the halal standard. The Halal section will present companies from many countries which make halal products. The event aims to expand the horizons of cooperation between halal producers.

Newcomers to the exhibition include professional associations, such as the Canadian Association for Agriculture and the Food Industry (SUSTA), Armenian Development Agency, and Trade and Industrial Association of Baltic Countries and the Republic of Kazakhstan (KazBalt). The Association of Fruit and Vegetable Enterprises of Kyrgyzstan and the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) have been traditional exhibitors at World Food Kazakhstan for several years.

The main exhibition events include the annual “Best Product” professional tasting competition of food and alcoholic beverages. The participants will include 50 companies with 120 product items. The jury is chaired by the Vice President of the Kazakhstan Academy of Nutrition. Of course, only top-quality products will win medals. From the variety of products available, consumers will be able to choose the best ones thanks to the image of the competition’s medal on the labels. More than 5,000 professional visitors are expected to attend the exhibition during its 4 days.

Interesting topics will be discussed during the seminars traditionally held during the exhibition. For instance, on the first day, the German company Leonhard Kurz will hold a seminar entitled Optical Protection of Food and Drink Brands. This will be followed by a seminar no less interesting - Stretch Film: Development, New Products and Advice, by Upakovka & Servis Kazakhstan.

Exhibitions on packaging, containers and labels, KazUpack, and on agriculture, AgroWorld Kazakhstan, will be held alongside World Food Kazakhstan. In terms of its size and commercial impact, World Food Kazakhstan is one of the top ten major agro-industrial shows in the CIS.