There is no substitute for meeting people

26 March 2015, 11:51 am
Speciality Bites by Paul Hargreaves

After a couple of days at IFE, I am off to Dublin tomorrow for their triennial speed-dating event which puts 100s of buyers in meetings with 100s of Irish producers

Organised by Bord Bia, it is always a highly productive event and helps towards the £9Billion Irish Food & Drink Export market. If only one of the parties trying to be part of the incoming UK government had in their manifesto investing more in British Food & Drink Exports.There is, of course, some money available via UKTI but the amounts involved are paltry compared to what other European governments invest in exporting their country’s food and drink to the world.

However, not all this cash is well spent. I made the mistake on Sunday morning at IFE of stumbling into the Algerian and Moroccan area of the IFE “Walk the World” area It was too dark, there were one or two packets of product on the stands and hardly any exhibitors. At first I wondered whether a plane from North Africa had been delayed. Apparently not – it was the same the following day. I am glad I am not a tax payer in either of these two countries! 

In fact export and import are primarily what IFE is all about these days, and both the size of the show and the speciality area is smaller than it used to be, partly due to the emergence of Farm Shop and Deli Show which is now every year. One question I heard a few people discussing, and indeed they have for years, is that as the number of shows increases and the visitors become more diluted is whether trade shows have a limited life looking into the future. It is so easy these days to source products, discuss with prospective buyers or sellers and even see the products being made via different forms of media. I know there is no substitute for meeting people, and that is probably the best use of time at a show, going to a number of planned meetings rather than browsing the aisles. That is exactly what I will be doing on Thursday in Ireland.

Have a great week.

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