Exhibits have one advantage over other marketing and advertising tools: they invite the involvement of not just one, but all, five human senses. This in turn provides a unique opportunity for both the consumer sampling a product or a would-be entrepreneur considering investing in it. The commodity in question can not only be just seen and examined, but it can be touched, made to invoke sound (if needed), and (when it comes to food and beverage) tasted.

Now put all these exhibits that belong to one industry or adhere to one theme under one roof, and interaction is actually encouraged and strengthened between the various participating parties: seller and consumer, supplier and purchaser, owner and possible partner, business head and investor, business owner and wouldbe franchiser/entrepreneur, farmer/product maker and distributor, etc.

That’s one reason why the World Food Exposition (WOFEX) has been growing the past 10 years since its initial launch as a mere show on food imports in 2000. This year, it is expecting a crowd of 60,000 participants to come to its 1,200-booth-strong food industry conference which, for the first time, will be held simultaneously in two venues—the World Trade Center and the SMX Convention—on August 4 to 7. The whole spectrum of the food and beverage industry will be exhibiting their wares, from the expected dietary and culinary products to raw produce to equipment like coffee-makers.

Something for Everyone

Aside from the obvious product demonstrations, seminars and workshops will either give the audience a greater appreciation of those delicious or nutritious stuff we routinely digest or show them the ropes in putting up their own business. Joel Pascual, president of WOFEX’s organizer, the Premier Events Plus Group Inc., points out that a visit by Mr. and Ms. Juan de la Cruz can become a handy learning experience. “You may not be ready to go into the food business now. But if you do get exposed to it, you can use the information when times become hard and you are looking for a way to generate extra income,” he says.

More important, during the exhibition, it is the experts who will be on hand to personally share their knowledge with you. He says, “Intelligent decisions are made because of the exposition. For example, if you’d like to know the difference between olive oil, tuna oil, and corn oil, the experts can teach you. Whereas there’s nobody to ask in the groceries, and the promo persons in the malls are [not the ones to approach.]”

Food stall franchises can cost from P60,000 to P150,000, depending on the product and the size of the store. Pascual points out that one option is to start small and consider other avenues of doing business. He points out, “Another opportunity is distribution. Some companies marketing their products are looking for people to do their promotions or do networking for them. Most of the time, in these cases, laway lang ang puhunan.”

Meanwhile, the professionals who are already in the F&B business can widen their knowledge and improve on their trade by touching base with their peers. Pascual says that it is not uncommon for deals to be made by the exhibitors themselves during the show. “You’d have a restaurateur and a coffee-maker manufacturer manning their booths on the same floor,” he says. “It’s only a matter of time before they get acquainted and possibly strike a deal with one another. Or you can be a distributor who is looking for various options of the products you are selling. You’d find out that you can source cacao and coffee beans from Batangas and Cavite. Or if you are a wine distributor who has only had experience in dealing with Italian and Californian wine, you might be surprised to discover that our Asian neighbors make very good wines.”

Better and Wider in Scope

During this year’s exposition, local producers and distributors (and consumers) will also be rubbing shoulders with their counterparts from other countries. Manufacturers, growers, planters, and food experts from the United States, Europe, Malaysia, and Turkey (among others) have already reserved booths—a significant cluster of them from one country can make a pavilion. “Local and international participants in the same event can make technological transfer possible as both parties learn from each other,” Pascual enthuses.

The presence of international judges will also raise the standards of the Culinary Competition which will test the skills of both individuals and organizations, on both the amateur and professional levels, in various categories in cooking, baking and styling.

Pascual says that putting up the food show for the past 10 years has also been a learning experience for him and his partners, especially when by the fifth year, customers and partners from other parts of the country were inviting them to do the same conference in their respective regions.

“For Mindanao, what we held was a food processing expo,” Pascual says. “There weren’t too many hotels so we couldn’t do an expo on food service. The need of the region was more of food processing and packaging. Mindanao had a lot of growers who wanted to ship their products to Manila and overseas. What we encouraged them to look at was processing—such as converting bananas into banana chips—where their returns would be bigger.”

On the other hand, Cebu’s strong tourism industry made possible an expo on hotel restaurant and catering. “Visayas does not have that many farmers but it has a lot of restaurants and hotels. We focused on linens, plates, uniforms, and coffee makers while in Mindanao, it was more of equipment and technology. In Cebu, you teach culinary development; in Davao, you teach shelf life and exportation.”

All these subjects are covered in the expo in Metro Manila where the industry practitioners keenly notice new trends and developments. Pascual illustrates a couple of examples that are becoming popular in the industry: “We’re going back to basics. Artisan bread or the cookie-cutter type of bread that is normally seen in hotels is now being propagated. People are going back to pugons and fire ovens. This move is a reaction to the fast food phenomenon. Now people want a more homey feel, they want food made especially for them—they don’t want everything to look the same.”

Not surprisingly, with healthy eating a staple that won’t go away, free-range practice is getting nods from the experts. “The principle in free range is that cows and chickens are happier when they are not in cages but are allowed to wander,” Pascual explains. “When they roam fields, they are happier—and when they are happier, their meat turns out to be better.”

Because WOFEX is serious about the food business, it wants to ensure that the show gets quality participants, and not just quality exhibitors. Teenagers below 16 years old will not be allowed entry. Student groups cannot enter as a group unless prior arrangement has been made with the organizer.

An entrance fee of P100 will also be charged at the gate.

“The fee merely acts as a deterrent against people who are not really interested,” Pascual says. “Hopefully the people who come in are users of a product or future entrepreneurs.”

For more info about WOFEX, call 929-7993, 928-0931, 929-1576, or e-mail info@pepgroup.com.