Pic: Hospitality Qatar
The illegal blockade imposed by siege countries has strengthened Hospitality Qatar’s (HQ) position as a platform for the Hotel/Restaurant/Café (HORECA) sector attracting more new exhibitors from various countries and hence opening doors to new players in the food and food services sector, organisers said.
“With all the current challenges, the immense opportunities in the sector became the key success factor behind Hospitality Qatar’s third edition. We have a sold out show today with over 144 exhibitors spread on 7,500sqm exhibition space coming from 17 participating countries such as Spain, India, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Lebanon,” George Ayache, GM of IFP Qatar, organisers of the annual event, said recently.
With the increasing demand in the food sector due to the blockade, the third edition of the annual hospitality show has added a fresh feature - the HQ – Food Qatar, a dedicated platform designed for the food and catering industry. This was announced at a press conference ahead of the show slated from November 7 to 9 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center.
“More than 80 percent of the participants are new exhibitors due to the fact that the food sector in Qatar has a very high appeal and as we all know food is a major element in the HORECA industry and hence the increased interest of all the countries and their respective food sector in the Qatari market using hospitality Qatar as a platform to showcase what they can offer,” said Ayache. One of the new entrants to the exhibition is Spain expected to bring new companies offering a variety of new food products to the show. Spanish Ambassador Ignacio Escobar Guerrero stressed the important role Spain plays in the food industry as the fourth largest exporter of food products in Europe and eighth in the world.
“This is possible because our agricultural production has increased by 55 percent in the last 20 years. In terms of bilateral relations with Qatar, the exports of agri-food products have been rising steadily since 2015 in very high terms around 24 to 26 percent every year but this year only after eight months we are setting a new record of 43 percent,” said Guerrero.
Prior to inviting Spanish companies to participate in the show, the Spanish ambassador said they met with local distributors to make sure they would bring exactly what they wanted and companies offering dairy products, fruits and vegetables, frozen food, fruit juices and canned fish are among those participating in the exhibition.
“There’s a lack of variety in the number of Spanish products here compared to other countries in the region so we are trying to change the situation,” he said, adding the blockade has not affected Spain’s food export to Qatar. “What we are experiencing now is that more and more operators in the Qatari market are going directly to Spain, which means that they are getting products at a much more competitive price because they are getting rid of the middleman in the process,” he said.
Indian Ambassador, P Kumaran was of the same view, saying, “Currently a lot of trade is happening directly between India and Qatar. We are hoping direct trade between India and Qatar increases to respond to the new reality.” India is one of the countries with the most number of participating companies at the show.
“We have 25 companies coming in especially in the food sector. The most important participants out of this group of companies are engaged in rice, spices, dairy products, processed food, food processing technology and packaging sector,” said Kumaran.
He stressed that agriculture had been a very important activity in the Indian economy, and that India had contributed significantly to the food basket of the world, being known as food and spices exporter throughout the ages. “We consider Qatar an important market in the region for food items. We hope that our companies by participating in Hospitality Qatar 2017 will enter into long-term sustainable business partnerships in Qatari industry and trade,” said Kumaran.
