14th Americas Food & Beverage Show
October 26, 2010
Miami Beach Convention Center
The Atlantic Food and Beverage Processors Association, with support from ACOA, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Atlantic Canada Food Marketing Group, is again hosting an Atlantic Canada pavilion at the “Americas Food and Beverage Show’ October 26 and 27. Setup and preliminary events will be on October 25. Most companies will have follow-up meetings later in the week after the show.
This show is at the heart of a very exciting trillion dollar plus food market in the southeastern US, the Caribbean and Latin America. Approximately 1,200 food and beverage importers, exporters and distributors are based in Miami alone and cruise line buyers purchase there for eight million passengers per year. The market is accessible to food producers in Atlantic Canada via land and sea routes down the coast. It is a significant current market with huge potential for growth.
The show is the largest two-way show in the western hemisphere and represents a very cost effective means for Atlantic Canadian producers and processors to come in contact with potentially 6,000 buyers in only two days. Half will be distributors and wholesalers while a quarter will be foodservice companies.
The majority will be from the Caribbean and Latin America, while the remainder will be from the southeastern US and other countries. The show therefore provides a very unique opportunity for Atlantic Canadian companies to develop the Latin American market. Realistically, actual experience is that the people at each Atlantic Canada booth will meet face-to-face with two to three-hundred people who will visit each booth each day plus contacts will be made at receptions and other events. It is likely that each exhibiting company will come away from the show with more than a hundred high quality new sales contacts and several companies will sign contracts at the show. This year there will be 432 booths at the show. About a third of the exhibitors will introduce new products there.
The show organizers have reserved 14 booths very strategically located at the entrance to the convention center for the Atlantic Canada pavilion. Some booths may be occupied by two companies.
http://www.americasfoodandbeverageshow.com
Don Newman (don@atlanticfood.ca)