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Multi-million dollar business deals signed at Gulfood 2006

"As a regular participant at Gulfood, we project that this year we should conclude between Dh40-50 million of business as a direct result of our involvement," said Hagop Kassabian, Marketing Manager, Abu Dhabi National Food Company (Foodco).

"Around 50 per cent of this business is to the GCC or MENA markets, 20 per cent to the Indian Sub-continent and the rest to Europe," added Kassabian.

Polipa, a Turkish company specialising in food container equipment, volunteered that as a direct result of being involved at Gulfood, they will be looking to open a permanent office in Dubai.

"We are extremely happy with the number of visitors we have received over the first two days and from this year's event we project that sales, resultant of our presence here at fair will reach $500,000," said Kaya Erel, General Manager, Polipa.

From the UK pavilion, the Regional Manager of snack-food machinery equipment company Ishida commented that by participating at Gulfood as much as 50 per cent of trade visitor interest had prompted the company to look at diversifying their portfolio of product offerings. For example, the growing trend in snack foods - the 'Prepared Salad'.

Luis Rota of Brazilian Beef Company 'Friboi', said, "Such is the importance of doing business at Gulfood that we are currently negotiating on a deal worth around $3 million."

Also in the multi-million dollar deal category, Kanegrade (UAE) suggested that they can accredite around $ 2- $3 million to their participation at Gulfood. Many buyers, says the organiser, travel in delegations with a goal of meeting as many different exhibitors as possible over the four days. The exhibition had already attracted trade visitors from 132 countries, with international delegations coming from South-West Asia, Africa, North and South America as well as traditional trade partners in European states.

"The numbers and quality of the attendees is critical to the success of any of our shows. So we are delighted that we have been able to continue to draw so many key buyers and specifiers from the international market to the region to do business," said Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General of the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), organiser of Gulfood.