Fancy Food Show New York 2008

Hello there cheese enthusiasts, a post card from NYC where I am attending the 54th annual Fancy Food Festival. This, fellow cheese enthusiasts, is bigger than Ben Hur!

The Fancy Food Festival is a 3 day international trade show held over the next few days at The Javits Centre NYC.

The event is sponsored by The 'Speciality Food Magazine' a foodie mag that is big here in the States.

This trade show offers an unparalleled variety of appetising cuisine from every corner of the globe and there's no doubt about it..... The American's certainly don't do things in halves.

The gastronomic greatness of this event is so overwhelming I have twice been reduced to tears.

Surely this is where good gourmands get to go when they die....... and the bad ones are the poor people staffing the entire event or perhaps the exhibitors.

As I wondered around 3 levels of food and beverage I couldn't help thinking that if aliens visited earth today and happened upon the Javits Centre, with its 2,400 companies exhibiting over 345,000 square meters and the 25,000 buyers who will come through over then next few days, that these aliens would surely be impressed with all that we have achieved in the specialty food industry on earth

They probably, like me, would be rather disappointed with Australia's efforts however; out of 77 countries exhibiting here, I am one of a handful of Australians independently showcasing an Australian product- (Australia is not represented here neither is NZ?? Austrade wake up!!)

The product I have is The Pastilla Nash Prune & Walnut Log. (or sugar-plum & walnut as they say over here) Those of you who have experienced anything we do will be familiar with this product; our number one cheese accompaniment.

This event is rowing.... or rather growing and I am one of 250 first time exhibitors along with Egypt and Dubai. Can you believe that there are over 140,000 foods and beverages to be sampled here...... someone's got to do it!

This event kind of reminds me of the Italian Slow Food Festival I went to in Bra 'Cheese' but much more diverse. You know what these American's are like.... they take a concept and do it bigger and better than anyone else........ i really can't emphasise to you all just how completely huge this is. MASSIVE

Cheese is a huge industry here and growing exponentially as there legislation has been relaxed somewhat on raw milk importation and product experimentation here in the US. this has led to more creativity and interest in the cheese industry..... ( take note Australia)

In fact, the specialty food industry over here in the states took in US$47.9 billion in retail sales last year, a 23% increase from 2005.... that's how fast it is growing! apparently that figure makes for 12.5% of all retail food sales last year! obviously they are expecting that figure to have increased again by the end of this year!! amazing. (that is a huge amount of mulla- good if you are in the industry... Matt perhaps we need think about relocating to the busiest city in the world??)

This event is not just exhibitors, it is also workshops/seminars on everything food from cooking classes to business lessons to food industry tips and governmental import/export advise regarding the food industry.

The 25,00 that are expected through (based on last years attendance) are buyers all with food businesses around the world that are looking for the latest and greatest products to purchase.

Some of the countries exhibiting include;

Poland, Peru, India, Africa, Sth Africa, Morocco, Taiwan, Serbia, Lebanon, Bulgaria, Jordan, Korea, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Pakistan, Malaysia, China, Belgium, Brazil, Panama, Mexico, Caribbean, Germany, Great Britain, Chile, Turkey, Argentina, Greece, Austria, Thailand

Spain, Egypt, France, Canada

I will be sure to keep up updated with news from this international event and will post pictures at my earliest convenience.

Claudia x.