World’s largest international trade show continues to grow
13 March 2023
Gulfood 2023 has just wrapped up in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and remains the largest international trade show held to date.
This year, over 5,000 companies exhibited over the five days, with 38,000+ exhibitor badges distributed before the event. While the official attendance numbers will not be released for some time, it’s estimated that there were more than 100,000 visitors to the trade show within the first two days – well above previous years’ attendances.
Visitors included the usual customers from the UAE and neighbouring Gulf markets, as well as European and North American nations, and a resurgence of visitors from China and South-East Asia. This demonstrates Dubai’s growing importance as a global travel and trade hub.
MLA’s presence at Gulfood 2023
The MLA stand was host to 36 companies that export Australian beef and lamb – our largest ever exporter presence at a food trade show. The exhibitors showcased the full range and variety of Australian red meat products from all categories of mutton, lamb and beef, through to high-end Wagyu. MLA was able to regain most of the floor space lost during the COVID-19 period – this year’s stand size was 2.5 times larger than Gulfood 2022.
To support its exporters, MLA co-hosted a successful welcome function with Austrade on the Sunday night before the trade show started for all exhibitors from Australia, with over 140 attendees from meat and other food industries. An Indian Market update breakfast was also hosted by MLA and the Austrade India team. An overview was provided to lamb exporters on the Indian sheepmeat market after the 30% tariff reduction included in the recently enacted India-Australia ECTA.
Overall, Gulfood was a great success with very positive feedback from the attendees. MLA is now looking towards further improving the experience for exhibitors at Gulfood 2024.
