GLOBAL GOURMET’S FINEST EDITION
The Speciality Food Festival 2024

05 – 07 November 2024

Dubai World Trade Centre

With its 12th edition, the Specialty Food Festival is celebrating 290+ premium food exhibitors and thousands of brands across six core sectors, from Artisan & Gourmet, Vegan & Plant-Based, Organic & Free-From, to Food Services, Speciality Coffee, and Health & Wellness, drawing almost 10,000 buyers to this global center for the international hospitality trade.

From 07-09 November 2023, the Speciality Food Festival will bring together the region’s top chefs, restauranteurs, hoteliers, retailers, and food service providers to address the industry’s pressing needs and opportunities.

SEIZE YOUR SHARE IN A UNIQUE PLATFORM WHERE BUYERS CAN TASTE AND SAMPLE QUALITY BRANDS

The speciality food festival is the perfect platform to showcase premium food products to trade buyers from in and around the region.

Catering to the exclusive hospitality & institutional sectors and the specialist buyers of premium products across the Middle East, The Speciality Food Festival returns with its unique platform where buyers can taste and sample quality brands.

Win more business, expand your sales channels and increase profits by tapping into this massive fine food market. Get a chance to meet an elite range of buyers from Speciality Retailers & Wholesalers, Executive Chefs, restaurateurs, Hoteliers, Distributors, and many more.

DAZZLING NEW LAUNCHES ACROSS SECTORS

Vegan & Plat Based

Plant-based and vegan foods is expected to grow as environmental, health and wellness concerns among consumers continue to rise. The plant-based trend not only includes vegans and vegetarians, but also “flexitarians” someone who is looking to adopt plant based meals but are not ready to cut on meat consumption.

Artisan & Gourmet

Top quality is the bare necessity here. Handmade, slow-grown/cooked, premium ingredients, line-caught, matured – all the food products where no efforts have been spared or no compromise made get sourced here.

Showcasing a diverse selection of fine foods, from artisanal olive oils, pickles and chutneys, speciality coffee and teas, to gourmet staples such as charcuterie, bakery and dairy, as well as some of the rarest spices and ingredients

Organic & Sustainable

Converting to organic food production should be a national goal. Consumers are heading towards healthy lifestyle, on a global level

Farm Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Non-GMO Ingredients

Fresh Organic Meat and Poultry

Free-From Product Lines

Health & Wellness

Balancing a healthy lifestyle with great flavors. Health, Wellness and fitness foods are more than a fad, they are here to stay. Consumers are becoming more informed and conscious on what they shop, consume on everyday basis.

Increased consumption of vitamins & supplements, consuming more fruits & vegetables, Reducing Sugar In Food And Beverage Products, Natural In Food And Beverage and Indulgence & Comfort Foods has become few of the key factors in Health and Wellness Industry.

Food Services

An organized food services sector which demands for high quality and standard raw materials. This leads to better practices and technology development. This sector will cater to product requirements of hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, retail chains, caterers, etc.

Speciality Coffee

Top quality coffee that are roasted to their maximum flavor potential by craftspeople, then brewed to well established standards.

Brewing with inspiration and creativity, The Speciality Food Festival 2021 saw some of the most skilled and artistic baristas compete in UAE’s National Latte Art and Barista Championships.
Here is a glimpse of the fine work that was produced by our coffee artists on the show floor.

UAE NATIONAL LATTE ART CHAMPIONSHIP

The UAE National Latte Art Championship comprised of three rounds, each judging the competitors on the basis of their ability to prepare designer and matching free-pour lattes.

UAE NATIONAL BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIP

The UAE National Barista Championship allotted 15 minutes to all participants to wow the jury with four expressos, milk and signature beverages each.

BUSINESS MATCHMAKING PROGRAMME
Reconnect again and build long-lasting relationships with our business matchmaking programme

Pre-book & confirm your meetings with Speciality Food exhibitors even before the show starts

  • Browse via product, sector or company name
  • Meet your match
  • Schedule meetings

Food to go market grows by 32% in three years

With nine in ten professionals now embracing hybrid working, the food to go market has exploded, growing by a significant 32% over the past three years. The food to go market has evolved over the past few years in the midst of a global pandemic with more people than ever before working from home. At the recent MCA Food to Go Conference, Blonnie Whist, Lumina Intelligence Director launched the new UK Food to Go Market Report 2022.

This new report revealed that the food to go sector experienced growth of 32% in 2022, to a value of £21.3bn. This figure well exceeds its pre-pandemic 2019 value, demonstrating the significant importance of the market despite the fact that many professionals are continuing to work from home.

Blonnie Whist commented: “During the pandemic, the very nature of food to go was hampered by tight restrictions on movement. However, the channel has always been well placed to recover post-pandemic. This is apparent in our forecasts, which indicate a full recovery by the end of 2022. This growth is set to be driven by a number of factors.

Plant-based food has taken the world by storm in recent years as more people than ever before are moving away froat and adopting more plant-rich diets. But what does the future hold for plant-based food? We spoke with industry leaders to hear their thoughts about the future of plant-based food…

Ten years ago, vegans were busy draining the ‘milk’ from almonds with their bare hands, because one simply could not purchase almond milk off the shelf.

Fast forward to recent years and you can find virtually any food or beverage in a plant-based version. It is clear that the plant-based industry has come quite a long way.

According to a 2022 Bloomberg report, the plant-based food market is expected to reach $162 billion by 2030, up from $29.4 billion in 2020.m me

Global Carbonated Beverage Market to Be Driven At A CAGR Of 5.28% In The Forecast Period Of 2022-2027

Arbonated Beverage Market Size, Share, Price, Trends, Growth, Analysis, Key Players, Outlook, Report, Forecast 2022-2027 | EMR Inc.

The new report by Expert Market Research titled, ‘Global Carbonated Beverage Market Report and Forecast 2022-2027’, gives an in-depth analysis of the global carbonated beverage market, assessing the market based on its segments like type, distribution channel, and major regions like Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. The report tracks the latest trends in the industry and studies their impact on the overall market. It also assesses the market dynamics, covering the key demand and price indicators, along with analyzing the market based on the SWOT and Porter’s Five Forces models.

The Speciality Food Festival brings together extraordinary food and beverage products and international brands with unique ingredients created through time-consuming processes that deliver the very best product, exquisite taste, and presentation.
Spain’s ‘white gold’ super-drink

Gluten-free, sweet and nutritionally dense, tiger nuts are being hailed as a rising “superfood”. But in Valencia, Spain, these tasty tubers have been popular for centuries.

Stretching across the drying room in a vast, rippled expanse, the tiger nuts seemed almost like desert dunes. I’d come to Valencia towards the end of their harvesting and found the sight of this immense volume – hundreds upon thousands, perhaps even millions – impressive. Singling one out, however, I was surprised to discover a small, wrinkled form that looked distinctly less inspiring. Where tiger nuts are concerned, it turns out, appearances really are deceiving.

Firstly they’re not actually nuts, despite being firm and brown, but tubers of the sedge plant Cyperus esculentus. And in spite of their peculiar misshapen looks, they’re considered the ultimate health food. “They’re packed full of nutrients like fibre and iron, making them great for gut health, and are gluten and lactose-free too,” said Ani de la Prida, who co-founded The Tiger Nut Company in 2016. Rumour says they even boost libido.

Also very moreish (as I’ve realised), with a creamy texture and sweet nutty aftertaste, tiger nuts have been hailed as a rising “superfood” by Good Housekeeping magazine in the US . Yet in Spain, where they’re known as “chufas”, these plant powerhouses have been popular for centuries – particularly in Valencia, whose beloved chufa-based drink horchata dates to the 13th Century. So integral is this milky beverage to Valencian culture that, alongside cafes and ice cream parlours, it’s served up in its own specialist stores known as horchaterías.

Horchatería Daniel is one of Valencia’s most famous horchata spots (Credit: Agefotostock/Alamy)

Horchata is indelibly linked to Valencia’s success in tiger nut cultivation, a practice that began in Ancient Egypt (the tubers have even been found buried in pharaohs’ tombs) before spreading throughout wider North Africa; from there it was introduced into Valencia following the Muslim conquest of Hispania in 711. Cultivation took hold in L’Horta Nord, part of a vast agricultural region on the city’s outskirts, known in English as “The Orchard”. It now takes place across 19 towns in the area, where the sandy soil coupled with Valencia’s temperate climate makes for ideal growing conditions. About 5.3 million kilograms of tiger nuts are produced here, 90% of which are covered by a special Denomination of Origin status designed to regulate quality among regional products in the European Union.

As we get ready to welcome you back with minimum impact on your event experience, the following Event Safety Measures have been put in place for an assured and secure visit. For your own safety, compliance is legally required in all areas; a team of our dedicated and trained ‘Venue Safe’ champions will be happy to assist you across the venue.

For more information, please visit our website:

www.speciality.ae