Over five days in February, 15 Australian red meat exporters joined more than 3,000 companies, 100 award-winning chefs, and 150 speakers at the Dubai World Trade Centre for Gulfood 2022, the world’s largest annual food and beverage trade show.
For Sam Gill, MLA’s Regional Manager MENA, the timing was exactly right.
“Gulfood was the first physical trade show since 2020 that Australian exporters have been able to travel overseas and attend,” he said.
“We’re a country where 70% of our lamb and beef is exported, so having those face-to-face meetings is so critical.”
For Australian exporters, Gulfood provided the chance to meet with existing customers and clients in one space over a short period, as well as to meet with potential customers.
Importantly, Gulfood is one of the few times there are a lot of Australian exporters in the one place at the one time.
“It gives potential customers the chance to see all suppliers at once, and it gives us a chance to show off the quality of our product,” Sam said.
MLA facilitates this by bringing the focus onto Australian red meat in a highly fragmented and competitive market.
“The Middle East region is a large net importer of food, and they source the best products from the US, Europe, South America and so on,” he said.
Sam says that Gulfood clearly demonstrated that trade circumstances are changing.
“There were more countries exhibiting this year. We noted a stronger European presence and Israel was also exhibiting for the first time in a Gulf country,” he said.
“The market is maturing from a commodity-based market to a segment that is more high-end. Consumers are socially connected and more aspirational, with higher expectations. Australia is one of the largest suppliers of quality beef and lamb, with clean, safe and hygienic processing methods and an excellent shelf life. We must remain very clear on what our value to the market is.”
Case study: Fletcher International Exports
One of the Australian exhibitors at Gulfood 2022 was Fletcher International Exports, a vertically integrated processor and exporter of lamb and sheepmeat products. Fletcher operates processing facilities in Dubbo, NSW and Albany, WA, with a combined processing capacity of more than 90,000 sheep and lambs a week, which equates to more than 4.5 million head a year.
Fletcher Sales and Marketing Executive Brett Stockings says, “We’ve been involved in Gulfood for many years, so it’s always been an important show for us. It attracts not just the customers in the Gulf, but European and Chinese customers as well. The show provides us with an important meeting spot to see our customers throughout the week and spend some time with them.”
Brett says that because of the two-year break, it was more important than ever to see what was happening in the markets.
“It was more noticeable this year – because of the two-year break – how markets have changed. There are more opportunities in the existing businesses we service, as well as new opportunities that have arisen. There was also a different focus for some of the items we offer: we noticed more higher-value niche opportunities out of Gulfood this year.”
