Wine Lovers At Food Fest
Shanghai – 22nd November 2009, A total of 20,810 trade buyers met suppliers of Turkish delight to seafood from Chile, meats from Argentina, dairy products from German, spices from Thailand, wines from Spain and much more at FHC China 2009, China’s premier expo for imported food, wine and hospitality products, which ended last week in Shanghai. The 13th edition of FHC from 18-20 November 2009 attracted 826 companies from 61 countries and 28 National pavilions, of which 12 were new country groups this year. The record number of international exhibitors and their distributors were overwhelmed by the quality of buyers that attended the 3-day trade show.
We have been amazed by the response at FHC 09. We received over 800 qualified buyers on our stand on the first day alone. This is the best show in China and it gets better every year.
Daniel Zhou, Managing Director, Goodwell
We only have wine companies in the French pavilion this year and all are delighted by the contacts they made. Next year we will double our area to 4 blocks and bring French food and wine companies to FHC China 2010.
Herve Henrotte, UBI France
The Italian Pavilion at FHC 2009 has been even more successful than last year, hosting more than 90 Italian companies representing many different parts of Italian territory. The wide range of Italian products on display proved very popular with the professional Chinese visitors, as witnessed by the large participation to the events held in the Italian Food and Wine Theatre.
Maurizio Forte, Chief Representative, Italian Trade Commission, Shanghai
FHC is an all encompassing food and beverage show, incl. three specialist events, namely Meat China, Tea & Coffee China and Wine & Spirits China. Each event has its own zone of companies within the exhibition. These specialist shows were made even more attractive for visitors by the opportunity to attend industry seminars, competitions and tutorials for their specialist industry.
Among the series of events, the first Sommeliers Wine Challenge held in conjunction with Wine and Spirits China has seen a surprising number of Gold winners from New World wines, but the more surprising observation from the international judges that participated was how good they found the wines that they tasted in the challenge.
Master Sommelier Mr. Michael Jordan from the United States remarked after a long day of wine-tasting, that after 2 flights of wines, his team of judges, that comprised local and international sommeliers, all felt that the wines were of superior quality. President of the Argentinean Sommelier Association, Mr. Andres Rosberg concurred: “I have judged in countless international wine competitions, and some of these competitions have up to 4000 wine entries, but many of the wines submitted are of such poor quality, so judges like Michael and I are very encouraged by what we have experienced in this challenge”. Co-organiser of the challenge and renowned wine educator, Mr. Tommy Lam, concluded that “when the wine companies know that the judges would be professional sommeliers and experts in their field, I think they sent in some of their best wines”.
The judging panel also consisted of local sommeliers, amongst them were the top 3 winners of the China National Sommelier Competition, Mr. Hans Qu from Shenzhen Intercontinental, Ms. Vivian Tian from Kee Club, and Mr. Jason Shi from China World Hotel. Joining them were the Director of wine from Pudong Shangri-La, Mr. Kelvin Tay,, who was also the Head of the Panel, the previous Penfolds’ Sommelier Champion Mr. Lu Yang from The Peninsula, and Mr. Franck Crouvezier from Kathleens 5. The competition was carried out under the most stringent conditions, as the wines were chilled, monitored and served by the Pan-American Sommelier Champion, Ms. Elyse Lambert from Canada. As observed by Mr. Crouvezier – “the organization, team and wines in this competition was of world-class standards”.
With a mix of local and international professionals, it ensured that the local Chinese market and palate was well represented. At the same time, this event allowed the aspiring local sommeliers to be exposed to the experience and knowledge of their international peers, and proved to be a great platform for professional exchange amongst them.
About the organizer for FHC China
China International Exhibitions Ltd, a member of the Allworld Exhibitions Alliance has had a fully staffed office in Shanghai since 1981. Its stable of events include industries such as food & beverage; hospitality & retail; packaging; processing; pharmaceutical technology; brewing technology; woodworking technology; furniture manufacturing and accessories; wood & wood products. For more information, please visit www.chinaallworld.com.
- 8320 reads