Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, the world’s leading publishing and exhibitions company, has announced that it has signed event partnership agreements with the Oke-Arin Traders Association, Association of Young Traders, and Balogun Business Association Trade Fair for the second edition of the Food West Africa taking place at the Landmark Centre in Lagos, Nigeria from 17 – 19 May 2017. This is in addition to the earlier event partnership signed with the Ogbaru Main Market Onitsha highlighting the important role that domestic retailers play in the West African food distribution ecosystem. These partnerships strengthen Food West Africa’s role as the premier platform for visitors to meet, network and establish business ties in Africa’s largest economy – Nigeria.
More than 6,000 industry professionals including dealers, distributors, wholesalers, restaurateurs and franchise owners are expected to attend the region’s largest and most prestigious food and beverage industry event that will showcase exciting new products, services and equipment from more than 150 businesses from 25 countries. The event will span 3,000 sqm of exhibition space and visitors will be able to source new products from 20 international country pavilions including China, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the USA.
Attendees will easily be able to navigate the different product sectors such as food companies, FMCG traders, beverage companies as well as companies selling and distributing F&B hospitality equipment. Food West Africa will showcase some of the popular domestic food distributors such as Answer Industries, Cosmos Trading Nigeria Ltd., DSV Global and FAB Juice, while international participants include Agricola from Italy, Fruiticana Foods from the Pakistan, Kofa International Co. from the USA and Nasco from the United Kingdom, to name a few.
The event, which once again enjoys robust regional industry support from the Association of Food Vendors in Nigeria (AFVN), the National Agency for Food and Drug (NAFDAC), and the National Agency of Supermarket Operators (NASON), is the perfect opportunity for visitors to meet with potential trading partners from the Nigerian food industry which was estimated to be worth over ₦1 trillion at the end of 2016.
According to Asiwaju S.K Onafowokan, National Chairman, National Association of Supermarket Operators of Nigeria (NASON) and speaker at the 2017 Food West Africa conference, “Without any form of exaggeration, the Nigerian retail sector is gradually evolving to greater heights and is presently a major contributor to the growth of the Nigerian economy. This indicates that frequent and continued collaborations with various stakeholders at events such as Food West Africa will help to create the desired positive retail revolution aimed at taking retail to the next level by ensuring excellent service delivery is obtainable. It is hoped that by the end of this deliberation, we will chart a new and sustainable course for retail business to thrive and grow in Nigeria.”
In line with Informa’s motto, Exhibition with Education, visitors will also have access to an action-packed two-day multi-sector conference that will address the market’s challenges, opportunities and solutions and aim to provide a learning and networking avenue for the industry’s major stakeholders including food importers, exporters, distributors, agents, wholesalers, retailers from both new and traditional markets – to determine challenges and help improve current systems and procedures in doing business.
Jamie Hill, Director, Informa Life Science Group Africa said, “We understand that providing a platform for knowledge exchange as an important way for the food industry to tap into the increasing spending power of the growing middle class in the country and wider region. By making this conference free-to-attend for those who pre-register their attendance via the event website (www.food-westafrica.com), we believe that it will encourage representatives from the full spectrum of the industry to come together to help improve the current systems and procedures in doing business in the food distribution industry.”
The Food West Africa conference is free-to-attend for online registrations and ₦2,000 is charged at the door for those that do not register in advance. For more information, please visit: www.food-westafrica.com.