From Italy to Saudi Arabia and from Spain to South Korea, Macfrut, the international trade fair for the fruit and vegetable supply chain, scheduled to be held at the Rimini Expo Centre (Italy) from 23 to 25 September, has already received confirmation of participation from many international importers, distributors and retailers.
Spain has already confirmed the participation of a delegation representing Kölla Valencia, in pursuit of new opportunities for Iberian products on the Italian market. "We would be glad to have the chance to make contacts with Italian Supermarkets attending the trade fair so we can offer them our products," says Jenny Porsia, sales manager for Spanish products for Italy. "Macfrut is a particularly interesting venue due to its location and the time of year it takes place." Carlos Iborra, sales technician, agrees: "We will be attending Macfrut to strengthen our bonds with our suppliers and customers, since it is a very interesting opportunity for discussion not only for its setting but also for the time of year."
Operators from Saudi Arabia, such as the importer Francaise Food, attend the event for the key reasons of discovering new products and searching for suppliers. The commercial manager at Al Jazeerah Shopping Center, which, for 2016, expects a considerable increase in sales volumes. “Part of our vision for 2016 is to bring plenty of exciting fresh flavours and new products to our market. We are also in the final stages of negotiation with two other existing supermarket chains to take over their business,” Van Satden explains. “At Macfrut,” he adds, “we hope to find new sources of supply for fruit and vegetables, new ways of packaging products, new ways to present products to our customers and new ideas and ways of doing things in the Fresh cut category. We will attend the Macfrut event to meet with logistics and service vendors in order to determine what value either of these could add to our supply chain."
Another participant will be Carrefour Saudi Arabia. Magdy Abdelmoneim Moukhtar, merchandise manager for fresh produce states: "The main purpose of our visit is to enhance and increase our portfolio of suppliers."
Visitors from South Korea will include Jinwom Trading. The manager of the food distribution company, Hwan Kim, explains: "I would like to obtain information on fresh fruits that can be exported to Korea, or could potentially be available for export to Korea, and I hope we can establish new business relationships with the exporters or growers concerned." Moreover, Soo il Commerce, a leading Korean importer will be attending Macfrut. The Assistant Manager Seongjun Park says: “We are already importing kiwifruits from Italy, therefore we aim to organise meetings with kiwifruit producers and exporters. We are also interested in other fresh fruit varieties, since we need to lay the foundations for import liberalisation in the future.”
Macfrut 2015 will also feature Colombia, as demonstrated by the participation of Vivasvan. Commercial manager Sandra Bolívar has declared: "The Macfrut trade fair is one of the leading
European events in the fruit and vegetable sector, since a large number of varieties of these products will be showcased for visitors from the EU, and we are sure that it will meet the needs of the participating countries."
And what about Italy? Another important participant will be Coop Italia, which will be attending Macfrut 2015 with its own exhibition space and will host a convention with its suppliers from all over Italy and from other European countries. "We have chosen Macfrut because we are impressed with this relaunch project," explains Claudio Mazzini, head of the fruit and vegetable department, "on the one hand, due to the new site in Rimini, which is more modern and suitable for an international trade fair and, on the other hand, due to the focus on innovation. Coop Italia’s main goal is to constantly pay attention to consumer needs, and Macfrut has all the right solutions."
