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Different products were presented during the exhibition such as tomatoes, bell peppers and herbs from Morocco; potatoes from Belgium; apples from France; kiwis, stone fruit and strawberries from Greece; bananas, pomegranates and mangoes from India; kiwis from Italy; citruses from Egypt and Turkey, and a lot more.
During the exhibition, FreshPlaza managed to talk to exhibitors and below are what they have said and experienced in WOP Dubai 2016.
Gerry Mundy, Aircool Box (UK)
“We are very pleased with the growth spectrum of suppliers attending the show from around the globe. We have been very busy throughout the fair and are very happy, we must have picked up 50 or 60 new leads, it was fantastic.”
David O´Brien, LucaZara - Pink Lady (UAE)
“The exhibition has been very worthwhile for LucaZara and for Pink Lady and we will definitely commit to a presence next year. We had people flying from Australia and Europe, the outcome is outstanding we had great experience.”
Elena Rybakova, Vialva Trading (Spain)
“I think it’s a very good experience, it’s a little trade fair compared with others but it has provided a great opportunity for exporters who sell fruits and vegetables to the Dubai market, there’s a lot to learn from it.”
Pascal Corbel, Cardell Export (France)
“We have been exhibiting since the start of the show, the expo has enabled us to meet our clients as we have been supplying this market for many years. It came at the right time as we started our season three months ago, we are however, a bit disappointed in terms of getting new contacts but we won’t give up, we will continue taking part in the exhibition.”
Ahmed Magdy, Farmex (Egypt)
“Despite the fact that we didn’t get visitors like last season, we are generally happy as we were able to make some contacts from UAE and Saudi Arabia.”
Ayla Kanatli, Aksun (Turkey)
“The exhibition was much better than last year, I’ve seen more meetings than last year. Our stand’s placement was also okay this year, last year we were at a corner so we didn’t get visitors as expected. For me though, I think the attendance wasn’t as good, more companies from Turkey need to attend next year. Middle East is a crucial market so I think more companies should take part in the coming years.”
Alexandros Arampatzis, Win Consulting - European Premium Kiwi (Greece)
“It’s our first time participating at WOP, we are very satisfied with everything, the B2B meetings we have been doing for the last three days have been very fruitful as for us it’s not about quantity but quality. To me the gist of WOP is quality and not quantity. We are happy and hope in the future we will participate and continue to benefit from such exchanges.”
Jeroen Pasman, The Fruit Republic (Vietnam)
“We got a lot of interests. It’s our first time here but with all the leads we have gotten, it might take us a year or so to follow up on all the contacts. To be honest I am a bit disappointed though as there were no supermarkets visiting, there were, however, a lot of wholesale importers which is good as they have their own interests. It’s a good fair for those interested in meeting importers.”
Sophie Hunter, Milama (Tanzania)
“As first time exhibitors here, it’s been very good, we got the right demographic and companies coming to speak to us. It is very important to us being our first time from Tanzania. We could probably have done with a few more distributors in the market, the numbers weren’t as we expected but generally it has been very interesting for us.”
With over 14 official country pavilions, including Australia, Belgium, China, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Italy, Kenya, Morocco, Portugal, Turkey and Spain and a 15% growth in the number of exhibitors. The event, held at the Dubai World Trade Centre aimed to welcome a total of over 7,000 attendees. It became a vehicle for business opportunities in the fruit & vegetable industry and its supply chain, dealing with all aspects of logistics and handling and is seeking to become the biggest stage for new products in the Gulf region.