The organisers of the ongoing Food and Beverage West African Fair a huge sources.
Citing the huge participation in the show by manufacturers and other industry players from 30 countries, the Food and Beverage West Africa exhibition manager, Brad Smith, said “it connects companies with buyers across the world.
Smit said the three-day show was to bring the global food and beverage industry to Nigeria, which ends today at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Smith stated that the show was a business-to-business display that BtoB Event (the organisers) showcased for food and beverage professionals from all over Nigeria and across West Africa, who are looking to connect with buyers from companies all over the world.
He said, “In this edition, we are introducing new products into the Nigerian and West African market, products that have never been seen before. New development established, new business relationships to bring their products into Nigeria.
“We have over 30 countries from all over the world here at the exhibition on your doorstep in Lagos, looking to connect with food and beverage professionals that want to bring new products into the market.
“We have already had record numbers and it’s the biggest exhibition we have ever done; it’s Nigeria’s biggest ever exhibition; first ever food and beverage show that has been seen. It’s an exciting event, numbers in record amount of visitors have registered. We are looking forward to next year being even bigger,” he said.
He added: This exhibition is significant and essential, the market here in Nigeria relies on imported products, so it’s an opportunity to find new products that are not yet in the market, meet with new business partners, work on pricing which is a key thing if you’re to bring in so many similar products into the market. How to get the best price which is better for the end users and for the economy.” According to him, everything is going to make Nigeria, West Africa a bigger home for everyone that’s a food and beverage professional.’
One of the companies at the show, B&S through its representative, Robin Koevoets, said the firm is an international distributor of fast moving consumer goods.
“It’s my sixth time actually in Nigeria, and my fourth time participating in the food and beverage show. Nigeria for us is a very important market of course because of the size of population and also the type of goods that we supply, match the demands of the supplier.
“What we are doing here is focusing on global brands in the food segment such as confectioneries, spirits. There is always a lot of demands unfulfilled in Nigeria because it is such a big country. It is difficult for the distributors sometimes to reach all the agents. Even in Lagos, there is much more demands that only one distributor can’t fulfill and that is where we play in this emerging secondary market to fill in the gaps of the distributors to feed the demands of the consumers.
“We have about 15 to 20 customers they take from us. We make global brands accessible, not only by buying full containers in bulk, but buying in pieces given them the opportunity to buy brands that they normally common in the market,” he said.
