By S BIRRUNTHA / Pic By MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

THE Thailand Food Exhibition (Thaifex)-Anuga Asia 2020 is expected to generate 3% increase in its sales value compared to the US$360 million (RM1.5 billion) recorded this year.

Thailand’s Agriculture and Industrial Trade Promotion director Natiya Suchinda (picture) said the trade exhibition is also looking to have more than 100 halal stores from Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia next year.

“The trade exhibition will see the introduction of new sectors in an effort to attract more visitors.

“We will be introducing nine zones for special activities and additional highlights for next year.

“Among them are Street Food, Protein Sources, Free-form Products, Functional Food, Food Ingredients, Asia’s Herbs, Asia’s Best Franchises, New Food and Organic Food.

“Altogether, the trade exhibition will feature more than 2,700 companies from 42 different countries,” she said in a media briefing of the Thaifex-Anuga Asia 2020 press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Suchinda also added that the top five ranked products on sales volume for this year were beverages, fruits and vegetables, rice, food technology and food service businesses.

“This year’s edition of Thaifex World of Food Asia had successfully attracted 67,000 visitors, while we are expecting about 70,000 people next year.

“Malaysia has emerged as the second-largest exhibitors with 1,545 companies joining this year’s event.

“The focus of the trade exhibition remains unchanged, in which it is to catalyse business, trade and networking opportunities for the industry,” she said.

Meanwhile, Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers’s trade fairs and missions executive Chung Winnie said the association is collaborating with Thaifex to help promote the event’s mission.

“We still have a lot of countries and overseas companies who are looking to get Malaysia’s halal products into their countries.

“It is because we have a very recognised halal certificate and the quality of our halal products is widely known.

“So, we are hoping more exhibitors would participate in this event to boost the business matching session,” she told The Malaysian Reserve on the sidelines of the press conference.

Previously, Bernama reported that according to Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), Thaifex 2019’s trade deals is expected to chalk up more than 1 billion baht (RM137 million) at the five-day event.

Thaifex, which is the largest food and beverage (F&B) trade show in the region, is co-hosted by Thailand’s DITP, the Thai Chamber of Commerce and also Koelnmesse GmbH from Germany.

Recently, the trade exhibition has been rebranded from Thaifex-World of Food Asia to Thaifex-Anuga Asia from next year onwards to cater to the European sector.

The event has been recognised worldwide among the F&B industries, as well as related businesses as the biggest and most comprehensive F&B fair in Asia.

Thaifex, which is held annually since 1991, will be taking place next year at the Impact Exhibition and Convention Centre in Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok from May 26 to 30, 12020.