Fine Food Australia trade show was a great success for all involved. MNFG partners generated a range of international exporting, supermarket supply and brand recognition opportunities. Two of our partners won significant awards, including Best New Product.
If you visited the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre early last week, you may have observed the absence of two adjectives particular to describing wellbeing – hungry and thirsty. You may have also noticed the popular use of a word commonly associated with building positive business relationships, networking.
Fine Food Australia is acknowledged as one of Australia’s largest and most important food, beverage and hospitality industry trade shows. Spanning over four days, concluding on 13 September, the Melbourne Convention Centre was packed with over 1000 food, beverage and hospitality equipment businesses, all eager to share their products with the bustling 25,000+ consumer and buyer market in attendance. The floor was filled with a buzz of excitement as business mingled with business, and buyers scoured displays for their next favourite product.
Set up among the green-branded exhibition, 11 Melbourne North Food Group partners displayed their products to the market. Visitors to the MNFG’s exhibition were treated to culinary delights, from pizza to cannoli and espressos complemented by European-style chocolate.
Two MNFG partners stood out among the crowd in their respective categories, winning several awards. Deb Graham from Blue Pear Pantry, known for her pre-packaged sausage rolls, took home five awards for her vegan, Thai chicken and gluten free sausage rolls. The Australian Superfood Co, known for their Australian native produce, were awarded Best New Food Service Product for their native fruit extracts. This award fell under the Best New Product Award category.
Deb Graham explained how her business has adapted and grown over its three-year life span.
“I started this business three years ago with a wider range of products. After winning two awards last year, I decided to focus more on our sausage rolls to produce a better product. The results have been great,” she said.
Kirsty Grace from The Australian Superfood Co discussed the networking benefit the award has created.
“It’s a positive image to be seen at Fine Food. Winning this award, we had many stall holders come up to congratulate us and to learn more about our products,” she said.
The opportunity to impress opened the partners up to potential international exporting, supermarket supply, restaurant supply and more.
MNFG partner Lydia Kerniak, export manager at Della Rosa, explained how the expo created beneficial exporting prospects.
“We’ve been pushing to become export ready for some time now. It’s great that this expo has generated some promising leads in this space,” she said.
MNFG partner Sally Atkinson, owner of Savoury Saucy, was ecstatic that the expo had produced such promising openings.
“The expo has been an incredible opportunity to represent ourselves to a market that we wouldn’t have previously had access to. We’ve had from small cafes to larger supermarkets, which we’re very happy about,” she said.
MNFG General Manager for Membership, Events and International Trade Margaret McLelland was proud of all partners who had exhibited at the expo, highlighting the quality of their products as the reason for their success.
“I’m delighted with the quality of buyer interest that’s been shown over the past four days. I think it’s testament to the quality of products our partners are producing. They never cease to amaze me” she said.
The Fine Food expo exemplifies the opportunity MNFG produces for partners to showcase their products to the marketplace. With many more advantageous events planned, the MNFG community’s future looks bright.
Follow MNFG Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram pages to keep up to date with upcoming events, industry information and community announcements. Visit melbournesnorthfoodgroup.com.au/events/ to see the full list of upcoming events.