Bringing Pacific flavours to the Auckland Food Show

Pacific Trade Invest (PTI) New Zealand will host eight Pacific Island food and beverage exporting companies from Papua New Guinea (PNG), Fiji, Samoa and Niue at the Auckland Food Show 2017 between July 27-30

The companies featured are PNG’s Paradise Foods; Fiji’s Flour Mills of Fiji (FMF), Pleass Beverages, J Punja and Tavulomo Coconut; Samoa’s Wilex and Elife and Niue Vanilla from Niue. As in the previous year, the eight companies will be hosted in a special PTI-badged ‘Pacific Hub’ themed area in Exhibition Hall 3 at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland’s Greenlane.

The Auckland Food Show (AFS) is a consumer show that connects a large number of exhibitors with thousands of dedicated food lovers in Auckland and further afield in Wellington and Christchurch every year.

PTI NZ’s participation in the Auckland Food Show is a part of PTI’s Pacific Path to Market programme. Pacific Island companies that have graduated from this export capability building programme conducted in their home countries are being featured at the show.

“The programme is designed to familiarise the participating companies to understand the New Zealand market and what their products and their companies should look like to break into the New Zealand market,” Michael Greenslade, PTI NZ Trade & Investment Commissioner & CEO says.

“Selected participants have shown that they are export ready and in some instances already have a presence in the New Zealand market. Typically, these companies are motivated, have developed strong brands and their packaging reflects the innovation of the product itself,” he added.

Mr Greenslade said PTI anticipates that the PTI stand featuring these eight companies will get the same high profile they received last year, introducing many of them to other New Zealand based stand-holding businesses that were also exhibiting at the show to source the Pacific’s excellent ingredients for their own products or to partner with them.

“The Auckland Food Show provides a good platform for our Pacific companies to build inroads into the retail market by meeting with potential distributors and building a relationship with thousands of New Zealand consumers. We warmly welcome these Pacific companies and look forward to working with them at this year’s event,” said PT&I Trade Development Manager, Joe Fuavao.

Among the products that will be on show will be a range of biscuits, snack foods, bottled water, innovative coconut-based products, chocolate, cocoa and health products based on turmeric. “We expect coconut and turmeric based products to attract a lot of attention,” Mr Greenslade said.

Last year, the show attracted more than 30,000 visitors and is expecting more visitors this year thanks to a multimedia promotional campaign, a spokesman for show organiser Northport Events, told Pacific Periscope. The PTI initiative is profiled on the Auckland Foodshow website.

 

Photo by Niue Vanilla International