Pacific Trade & Invest (PT&I) NZ is featuring eight Pacific Island food and beverage exporters at the Auckland Food Show (AFS) next week
AFS is a consumer show that connects a large number of exhibitors with thousands of dedicated food lovers in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.
AFS comes close on the heels of Fine Food New Zealand 2016, in which PT&I featured merchandise from twelve Pacific Island companies.
“This is the second food show that PT&I has supported this year as part of our food and beverage strategy,” PT&I NZ Trade Commissioner Michael Greenslade said. “AFS is for Pacific Island companies that are established and seeking to strengthen their consumer presence in New Zealand; it’s predominantly a brand building exercise for Pacific Island companies.”
PT&I’s experience at the Fine Food NZ 2016 show was encouraging, Trade Development Manager Joe Fuavao said. “We had positive response to the promotion undertaken in partnership between PT&I and The Produce Company Ltd.”
Explaining the difference in PT&I’s approach between the two shows, Mr Fuavao says, “While our focus [at Fine Food NZ] was to establish a new channel to market for Pacific Island companies, the upcoming AFS has a different focus. Our aim is to help Pacific Island companies brands grow and sell more products by partnering with their New Zealand distributors.”
With some 300 stands and more than 35,000 expected visitors, the AFS plays a key role in the growing consumer trend toward buying fresh ingredients, trying new flavours from around the world, sourcing top recipes, and cooking at home for friends and family. The estimated total spend at the four-day show is $6.3 million.
Trade Commissioner Greenslade said the participants will be selling products at the stand, which will be provided by EFTPOS machines to process card payments.
The eight participating Pacific Island companies are Papua New Guinea’s Banz Kofi; Niue Vanilla from Niue; C-Corp’s Solomons Gold chocolate and cacao nibs and from the Solomon Islands; Samoa Breweries’ Vailima Beer and Pacific Oil’s CocoSina coconut oil from Samoa; three companies from Fiji: J Punja NZ Ltd with bottled water, wraps, biscuits and other products; Carpenters Fiji with bottled water and FMF Foods Ltd with a range of biscuits.
The companies and their products will all be featured at the special ‘Pacific Hub’ stand at the show, which is being held at Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane from 28 – 31 July, next week.
Mr Greenslade said some of the participating companies were graduates of the PT&I Path to Market Programme which is PT&I’s export capability building programme that combines the range of export facilitation services and expertise provided by PT&I to help export ready and export capable businesses enter new export markets. He also revealed that PT&I would be participating in the Fine Food Australia show later this year.
While the show features a number of cooking demonstration sessions from chefs around New Zealand, a special attraction will be award winning Pacific-origin chef Robert Oliver who will cook up rare Pacific delicacies using Pacific ingredients from around the islands region.
Adding some great Pacific atmosphere to chef Oliver’s culinary presentations will be entertainment provided by the fabulous Cindy of Samoa, the internationally acclaimed ‘fa’afafine’ singing sensation, renowned for her impersonations of Shirley Bassey, Whitney Houston, and Tina Turner. Her revue-style show is considered one of the top 10 things to do in Samoa and she’s a regular performer at SkyCity Casino and corporate and charity events all around New Zealand.
Photo: Facebook/ CocoSina coconut oil from Samoa