FDBusiness.com

The common meeting point for the developed food ingredients industry of Asia and Europe, Fi Istanbul 2016 is organized in Istanbul Convention Center on May 4th-6th. Fi Istanbul has successfully added over 500,000 persons to its portfolio and created a business volume of billions of Euros for the industry.

Bringing together Eurasia, Middle East and North Africa, the region’s first food and food ingredients exhibition, (Fi) Istanbul Food Ingredients grew 47% in 3 years. Attended by visitors from 80 countries, 73% of whom were authorized to make purchase last year, Fi Istanbul was commenced in 2013 by UBM EMEA (Istanbul) with the goal of making Istanbul, the only world city that connects the two continents the common meeting center of food and food ingredients industry in the region.

A regional branch of Food Ingredients (Fi), which brought together the world food industry since 1986 and is considered to be the most prestigious event in the industry, the target for Fi Istanbul 2016 is that it is attended by over 250 brands and over 5,400 visitors. Exhibitors and visitors coming to the exhibition will find food raw materials, ingredients, ancillary materials, natural contents and R&D, marketing, quality control and consultation and all of their requirements that are closely related to the industry under a single roof in Fi Istanbul 2016 for 3 days.

Haluk Balcı, Chief Operating Officer of Turkey in UBM EMEA (Istanbul) said: “Turkey ranks the seventh worldwide after USA, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Japan in terms of agricultural production”. We should follow the innovations in the Turkish market which is expected to exceed German population in 2015 and become 83 million. We also need to know food producers well and to support them so that they develop and produce healthy food. With this approach, UBM EMEA (Istanbul) brings together the developed food ingredients industry of Asia and Europe, which are among the largest economies worldwide, for the fourth time in Istanbul and we are making a lot of efforts this year again in order for all sub-industries in the food ingredients industry to take part in Fi Istanbul 2016.

Mentioning that Fi Istanbul is raising the bar every year and is expanding it, Haluk Balcı said: “Our visitor profile for the year 2015 made our exhibitors smile. 73% of our visitors consisted of directors who were authorized to make purchase. Visitors from 80 countries, including China, USA, UK, Tunisia, Spain, Egypt, Switzerland, Egypt, Singapore, Russia and United Arab Emirates attended Fi Istanbul. In terms of geographical distribution, we saw that 72% of our visitors came from Turkey, 12% from Europe and 9% from other countries and 7% from the surrounding countries.” Reminding to representatives of the industry that the number of visitors exceeding 5% is deemed sufficient for an exhibition to be considered international in Turkey, and that 21% of Fi Istanbul’s visitors for 2015 were international, Chief Operating Officer of Turkey in UBM EMEA (Istanbul), Haluk Balcı invites the professionals of the industry to attend Fi Istanbul 2016, the common meeting center of food ingredients industry, held in ICC, Istanbul Convention Center on May 4th -6th, 2016.

Developing events aimed for increasing the market shares of its exhibitors in the food ingredients industry, Fi Istanbul provides a meeting area for the purchasing officials of the largest buyers in the industry in Fi Istanbul and facilitates their bilateral business negotiations and meetings with suppliers. Also, designed to introduce buyers and suppliers to each other in the fairground conveniently, Fi Suppliers Guide service will be offered to Fi Istanbul exhibitors free of charge again this year, wherein support is provided to facilitate and accelerate the purchasing process during the exhibition. Over 4,500 certified food ingredient suppliers can be reached via the system which operates on the Ingredients Network. This network is at the same time a part of the Ingredients Network global event network that brings together over 100,000 food ingredient professionals worldwide.

Fi İstanbul undertakes the mission to be not only an exhibition but also a common meeting environment where innovations and up-to-date information regarding food ingredients are shared. Sponsored by Seljel as the Golden Sponsor, the exhibition continues to be supported by Food Additives and Ancillary Materials Industrialists Foundation (GIDAKAT), which is a recognized non-governmental organization in Turkey, in its fourth year.

Online registrations have begun for attending Fi Istanbul free of charge. Food Ingredients (Fi) Istanbul 2016 visitors who would like to make new contacts, learn about new markets and gain new business opportunities can register online for free at www.fi-istanbul.com .