The trade fair will take up 30,000 square meters and is expected to receive around 40,000 visitors, most of them sector professionals. Officials note that the space taken up by this year’s trade fair is in fact 12 percent larger than last year’s.Mustafa Çalık, head of the Antalya Expo Center (ANFAŞ), which is overseeing this year’s Antalya food product trade fair, confirmed at a press conference that this particular trade fair, which helps support not only food production in Turkey but also the tourism sector and regional economies, has become Turkey’s largest of its kind. “We are hoping to see even more participants and visitors at this trade fair than last year. And the fact that we have more companies with stands at this trade fair than we did last year confirms these expectations” Çalık said. The bulk of visitors to this trade fair, he says, will be from Anatolian, European and Middle Eastern tourism regions, with particular interest shown by professionals in the hotel, restaurant, fast-food, bar, cafeteria, supermarket and food wholesalers sectors as well as representatives from universities, official institutions, hospitals, dormitories, military lodgings, food factories and other food sector areas.
Aydın Özdemir, head of the Food and Drink Directors Association (YİYDER), pointed to the international character of this trade fair. “This trade fair brings serious contributions to the Antalya economy, both from the perspectives of its visitors and its participants,” he said. Özdemir also noted that this year’s trade fair would see the second-ever “barmen’s contest” and that YİYDER hoped to see this sort of contest be replicated in the international arena, becoming part of a “Tourism Sector Olympiad.”
The Antalya Exporters’ Union will be sending a 15-person delegation to the trade fair, while the ANFAŞ Food Product 2010 trade fair also expects nearly 2,000 procurement managers from various hotels, procurement managers from 92 supermarket chains and 40 universities, 141 catering and food factories, 100 authorities from military kitchen supervisors and more than 1,000 procurement managers from various restaurants and fast-food eateries. Also, more than 300 food providers from 33 nations will be visiting the Antalya trade fair, while an addition 75-person delegation is expected from Iran. Additionally, the trade fair will also boast the “Turkey Creative Barmen’s Contest,” to be attended by about 120 barmen, and there will be cooks from the Turkish Chefs’ Federation preparing delicious Turkish and world tastes for visitors throughout the fair.
Benzer Haberler 
