Every year SIAL China exhibits food and agriculture products from more Latin American countries as they are aware of the promising future of the 'far but huge' Chinese market. Massive numbers of exhibitors from Latin American countries can be noticed at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, where SIAL China is hosted right now.
SIAL China is the largest food and beverage exhibition in Asia and fourth biggest food exhibition in the world. 126,000 square meters in eleven large exhibition pavilions welcome more than 2,900 exhibitors from 67 countries this year while about 65,000 visitors are expected to visit the fair.
Uruguay, the loyal exhibitor of the fair, has participated in the fair since 2005. This year some twenty Uruguayan meat producers came to join the fair, while Chile sent the delegations of associations of Chile pork producers (Chile Pork) and, for the first year, beef producers.
Major Latin American exporters are increasing its presence every year, while new participants are added to the list, as for the case of Costa Rica, which joined the fair in 2015 and participated again this year with its own pavilion and eight companies.
"China is an important market for us because we have a free trade agreement that facilitates the entry of Costa Rican products to China, its economy continues to grow, and Chinese consumers are more and more open to international products and brands" he added.
Six Peruvian companies decided to join the expo, focusing mainly on products that are already well-known in China: the "superfood" such as maca, quinoa, carob, pomegranate and dehydrated avocado.
"Previously, I could not believed that Peru could be important Asian market, but with products like maca, quinoa, cocoa powder, we are making differences in Asian markets," Giannina Denegri Baiocchi, director of agricultural exports of Peruvian Exporters Association ADEX told Efe.
Mexico, one of the big players in the region, also increased their presence in SIAL, with 18 companies, focusing on products such as avocado, tequila, mezcal and pecan.
Argentina joined the fair with 20 dairy producers, 25 meat companies and 12 food manufacturers while 65 Brazilian companies also participated in the expo.
Date: May 6, 2016
Source: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2411590&CategoryId=12394