Food industry discusses with IDAL its participation in Dubai Gulfood Fair

The Syndicate of Lebanese Food Industries (SLFI) appealed to the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL) to support its participation at next week’s Gulfood 2016 Exhibition at the Dubai World Trade Center. The event which annually hosts over 5 thousand exhibitors and receives some 90 thousand visitors from 160 countries around the globe, is expected this year to witness the participation of some 53 Lebanese companies, of which 40 companies will display inside the Lebanese pavilion and the remaining in other sectoral pavilions. In the same vein, IDAL, Nabil Itani, noted yesterday while receiving of an SLFI delegation headed by Ahmad Hoteit, that the food industry is one of the promising sectors in the country because it possesses the elements and uptime for growth. Itani stressed the need to assist in the international promotion and marketing as well as establish new outlets for the industry’s production. He also pointed out that the Gulfood exhibition has become a regular hub attracting major food industries of the world and that Lebanon has started to carve its strong presence in the regional and international markets. He  lauded the visible growth accomplished by the sector as a result of keeping up with the internationally-recognized standards of production, packaging and exporting. Similarly, Hoteit underlined the importance of the state’s contribution in this respect and hailed IDAL’s supportive role at all global exhibition venues. Finally, Hoteit called for the setting of an annual calendar of external exhibitions and events so as to attract the greatest number of Lebanese exhibitors. (Al Diyar, February 16, 2016)