Food Ingredients Asia 2014: Golden Opportunity for Domestic Industries to Penetrate Food Ingredients Markets in Asia

02 Sep 2014 --- Food ingredients Asia (Fi Asia), Asia's biggest tradeshow and meeting in Food Ingredients industries, will be held in Jakarta for the third time. It will be a biggest and highlighted meeting event for business players in food industry around the globe.

The world's leading food ingredient tradeshow, which will be held on 15-17 October 2014 at the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran - Jakarta, will be a golden opportunity for Indonesian business players to introduce their products and to penetrate Asian markets while obtaining the latest information about food ingredient businesses.

Organised by UBM Asia, an International exhibition organiser, Food ingredients Asia will be a business network platform where food and beverage producers and buyers of all over the world meet. Having successfully organised the same event in Indonesia since 2010 and Thailand over the last 12 years, Fi Asia will be routinely held in Indonesia and Thailand alternately.

Over the last five years, Indonesia, as the most populous country in ASEAN and number four in the world, has been a developing market for food ingredients with an average growth of 41% for processed foods. As the largest market in Asia for food and beverage products, Indonesia will stay robust and potential for 20 years to go.

Rungphech Rose Chitanuwat, Business Development Director of UBM Asia, Food Ingridents Asia organiser, said "This will be third edition Fi Asia held in Indonesia, following the four successful exhibitions both in Thailand and Indonesia since 2010. Fi Asia grows 25% per year and is determined to maintain its exclusive position as the most important route for food ingredient markets in Southeast Asia. About 450 participants and 13,000 visitors from 56 countries will be the targets of Fi Asia 2014. As many as 50 food and beverage companies in Indonesia will participate in this tradeshow and dominates more than 50% of the tradeshow area at JIExpo Kemayoran."

The three days exhibition will showcase a variety of interesting seminars and congress on food ingredients industries, including an international conference themed "Food for a Quality Life"   (http://fiasia2014.patpi.or.id/) on 15-16 October 2014. This conference will be held by the Indonesian Food Technologist Association (PATPI) in cooperation with the Southeast Asian Food and Agricultural Science and Technology and Department of Food Science and technology (SEAFAST) Center, the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) (www.seafast.ipb.ac.id) and Department of Food Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, IPB. The conference will discuss issues and topics related to food ingredients. In addition, business players, including producers, buyers, distributors, scientists, and technology producers will exchange their information and building wider network. Indonesia has a big opportunity to introduce its food ingredients potentially penetrating international markets.

Purwiyatno Hariyadi, PhD., Professor and Director of South East Asian Food and Agricultural Science and Technology - SEAFAST Center, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), said, "Asia-Pacific has been positioned as an important role to opened more opportunities for food and beverage industries, and local industries should be able to take advantages from these opportunities to introduce the potentials of this country. Both business players and public should be aware of the richness of Indonesia's natural resources which are potential resources for food ingredients industries that could help boost up the country's economic growth"

During the Food Ingredient Asia 2014, the Student Association of Agricultural Technology (HIMITEPA), Food Science and Technology Department, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, IPB, will also hold the 12th National Student Paper Competition (NSPC) for under graduate students. This year's NSPC theme will be: New Product Development: "Make a Revolution with New Functional Food Product Development". The objectives of this competition are (i) to boost or to motivate development of new food products in the form of functional foods, and (ii) to improve creativities of students in developing functional food products in Indonesia.

In addition, Graduate Student Research Paper Competition will be held for post graduate students.

A congress of the Indonesian Food Technologist Association (PATPI) which will elect new chairman of PATPI for the period of 2014-2020 and a convention of Federation of Food Science and Technologist Associations in the ASEAN (FIFSTA) (http://iufost.org/fifsta) which will be attended by participants from ASEAN countries will other two important events, said Purwiyatno.

Ir. Adhi S. Lukman, Chairman of Program Committee of Indonesian Food & Beverage Association (GAPMMI) said, "Fi Asia Tradeshow is known more than as a commercial trade because it provides added-value for the participants and visitors a variety of useful activities for the industry. It is actually the best way for entrepreneurs in the food industry to visit Fi Asia 2014. It is expected that the tradeshow will motivate entrepreneurs to produce better products with high competitiveness so that they can compete with or even outpace other products in the global market."

Food Ingredient Asia (Fi Asia) was held for the first time in the ASEAN region in Singapore in 1997, followed by Thailand in 2002. Meanwhile, Indonesian hosted Fi Asia for the first time in 2010. This year, Fi Asia 2014 is supported by Indonesian Food and Beverages Association (GAPMMI), and Asian Food & Agricultural Science and Technology (SEAFAST) Center LPPM - Bogor Agricultural University.