Seoul Food & Hotel 2020
KINTEX – KOREAN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION CENTER
Seoul FOODTECH 2020
Culinary Challenge
Wine Kores
Meat Korea
15 – 18 September 2020
1472 visitors from 50 countries and regions
Over 1400 exhibitors from 39 countries
76121 Sqm. Exhibition space
92% satisfaction for all the participants & Visitors
Seoul Food & Hotel is the unique and longest established entry point to South Korea’s thriving food, drink, and hospitality market. Outstanding growth of the Korean economy and consumer income over the years has naturally resulted in the growth of demand for products of higher quality and new tastes. The Seoul Food & Hotel Culinary Challenge ran for the third successive year, once again expanding on its previous edition in 2017, and now as a WACS endorsed the event. The Culinary Challenge was made up of a series of 17 competitions where 300 chefs, ranging from students to professionals, competed for the chance to become the Seoul Food & Hotel Culinary Chal demonstrating its growing reputation edge 2017 Champions. The first two Culinary Challenge editions saw a focus on Korean chefs, but for the first time in 2017, the event was also opened for international participation.
The event is supported by Korean Chefs Association, as well as Seoul Hoseo Technical College, all of whom worked alongside world-renowned Chairman Mr Alan Palmer to create an event that is rapidly becoming one of Korea’s most dynamic and popular culinary competitions. Nestle Professional showed their continued support by sponsoring the Chef’s Lounge as they did in 2015 and 2016, and with plenty of interest for sponsorship across all cooking categories for next year, the competition looks set to expand even further in 2018.
32 national pavilions from: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, USA, UK, Ukraine, Vietnam participated in SFF 2017.
Why South Korea?
- Korea has a population of more than 50 million with over 90 per cent living in urban cities. Being a food deficit country Korea depends heavily on imports for its food and agricultural needs. Seventy per cent of all food products sold in the market are imported from foreign origins and with the on-going elimination of import barriers, market accessibility and price competitiveness have greatly improved.
- South Korea is an emerging market where new ideas and trends are eagerly tried and accepted, leading to greater opportunities for new-to-market products. Consumers are looking for new and international tastes as the income level continues to rise.
- Currently, Korea has Free Trade Agreements with Chile, Singapore, European Free Trade Association (EFTA), ASEAN and India, and the Korea-EU FTA has been applied since 1 July 2011. Changes in lifestyle and dietary culture coupled with increased consumer income level stimulated rapid growth in the foodservice sector in Korea. Monthly per capita spending on eating outside of the home has more than doubled in the last ten years.
With hotel occupancy regularly amongst the highest in the world, the hotel sector plays a pivotal role in introducing new to market food and drink products to the Korean market. Food and beverage sales currently represent up to 50% of total sales revenue for Korea’s four and five-star hotels. Trade-only visitors represent senior buyers & specify from the whole food industry spectrum including retail, import, distribution, wholesale, food manufacture & bakery, as well as the total hospitality sector from hotels, restaurants & bars to fast food, clubs, resorts & institutional foodservice. Catering for the specialist needs of Korea’s fast-growing food industry, the exhibition also hosted dedicated Wine Korea and Meat Korea feature with accompanying seminars and events. Commenting on this, All World Exhibitions’ Paul March said: “Resulting from the excellent cooperation that we have with Kotra, we have gradually moved towards a complete business trade show model for the entire exhibition. This has been welcomed with open arms by our exhibitors and visitors alike, as was witnessed by the record business being done”.
Exciting developments also lie ahead for the next show in the series in 2018. The Kintex Exhibition Centre, which was opened in 2006 to international acclaim, is soon to open phase two of its planned expansion. This will double the size of the centre to over 100,000m² gross of exhibition space. Kintex is widely recognized as one of the finest centres in Asia, and its expansion moves it into one of the finest in the world. This will ensure that Seoul Food & Hotel 2019 will continue to develop, and retain its status as one of the world’s top food shows. Promotion for Seoul Food & Hotel 2018 is well underway and a number of new pavilions have already confirmed to join the show. It will take place from 21 – 24 MAY 2019.
For more details about the Seoul Food & Hotel 2019, please visit:
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