FHA-Food & Beverage 2022: four days of business exchange, seminars, cooking demonstrations, competitions and workshops

Returning after a four-year hiatus, FHA-Food & Beverage 2022 (FHA) closed to a resounding success after four exciting days of B2B exchange. The tradeshow is a testament to a strong return of the food and beverage industry in Singapore and the region in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s edition saw a total of 57,510 attendees from 109 countries / regions. From first-time participants to decades-long partners, FHA played host to over 2000 exhibitors including 56+ international pavilions supported by business associations or country groups including The European Union (EU) Pavilion, FHA’s Partner of Honour this year, Bord Bia, Business Sweden, Canada, Business France, Export Partner and many more.

Guest of Honour: Alvin Tan, Minister of Trade and Industry 

he declared “I am happy to share that Singapore food manufacturers are out in full force. Over 130 F&B companies exhibiting at the Singapore Pavilion, ProWine Singapore, Halal and Food Technology zones. Strong participation rate from local and global exhibitors demonstrates that Singapore continues to be a vibrant hub of exchange and business for the F&B industry in the region through such platforms.”

H.E. Iwona Piórko, EU Ambassador to Singapore said: “This is the first time the EU is participating in FHA. This comes after a very successful high-level mission of European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, accompanied by a large EU business delegation of 47 EU agri-food companies and organisations to Vietnam and Singapore from 10 to 16 July 2022. The objective of our participation under the motto “Enjoy! It’s from Europe” is to showcase the uniqueness of EU agri-food products, tapping on the benefits of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. Through our presence at FHA as the region of honour, we aim at creating new market opportunities for EU agricultural products in South-East Asia whilst creating new business partnerships.”

FHA-Food & Beverage 2022 A Resounding Success

Tony Er, International Marketing Director of DagangAsia Network Holding Sdn Bhd said: “FHA 2022 is the most fruitful Asia F&B trade show post Covid-19 pandemic with boundless physical networking sessions among industry-leading importers, distributors and retailers.”

Nikhil Asrani, Suresh Kumar & Co. (Impex) Pvt. Ltd. mentioned: “FHA Singapore never fails to impress. A perfect mix of local and international participants. This is truly the most global food show in Asia.”

Mr. Liang Choon Seng, Managing Director of Maxco Food Industries Pte Ltd said: “Maxco Food Industries’ new products had an exceptional boost and started with a bang at FHA-Food & Beverage, we are experiencing sales which exceed the costs!”

Mr. Jago Pearson, Chief Strategy Officer at Finnebrogue Artisan “It’s great being here at FHA, talking to potential customers, partners and distributors about our revolutionary Better Naked brand. We’ve already made a big name for ourselves back home in the UK as some of the most nutritious and sustainable food anywhere in the world and we have huge plans to expand internationally now and it’s a great place to start here at FHA-Food & Beverage Singapore. The conversations we already had on Day 2 have been brilliant and we will definitely be back as FHA-Food & Beverage is a good launchpad in the region.”

FHA Culinary Challenge (FCC) Crowns New Winners

The FHA Culinary Challenge sifted, filtered and uncovered some of the region’s top culinary talents before crowning 141 winners. 20 walked away as the champion, while 43 secured first runner-up and 77, second runner-up. In association with the World Association of Chefs’ Societies (WorldChefs) and supported by the Singapore Chefs’ Association (SCA) and regional chefs’ associations, the FHA Culinary Challenge is the ultimate arena for culinary talents from around the world to display their gastronomic skills and be accredited by a panel of internationally acclaimed judges recognised by WorldChefs. The 4-day competition featured a series of thematic challenges. This year’s panel included Chief Judge Otto Weibel, Director and Honorary President Emeritus of SCA, Assistant Chief Judge Eric Teo, Culinary Director of ET Culinary Arts, President Mentor of Singapore Chefs’ Association and Guest of Honour Willment Leong, Continental Director Asia of World Association of Chefs’ Societies

Buzz at Singapore’s largest alternative protein platform, Alternative Protein Asia (APA)

The inaugural Alternative Protein Asia zone confirmed the buzzing innovation and strengths of this food vertical. APA saw an exciting host of new product launches, tens of thousands of samples consumed on a daily basis, the announcement of the audience award winners of the APA tasting bar as in Yofi and Lohas, MOU signings on sustainability and food innovation, creative cooking demonstrations, the announcement of the Big Idea Food Competition Winner Vitality Foods as well as dozens of high-profile seminars and helped build new bridges for distribution in the region.

A successful Alternative Protein Asia Feature Area

Michelle Colgrave, Future Protein Leader, CSIRO, Professor of Food and Agricultural Proteomics, ECU said: “FHA-Food & Beverage Alternative Protein Asia, covers the breadth of the food types among alternative proteins, what’s exciting is the combination of flavours for the Asian market and it’s really exciting to showcase products on behalf of your own home country, specifically for consumers in this region.”

The debut of a brand new 1,400sqm feature zone, Alternative Protein Asia (APA), brought focus to entirely plant-based and food-technology alternatives to animal proteins. It featured some of the industry’s biggest names including Impossible Foods, Harvest Gourmet (Nestlé), First Pride (Tyson Foods), Tindle, Oatly amongst budding brands Finnebrogue or GrowthWell,

that seek to satisfy the region’s fast-rising demand for ‘fresh’ sources of proteins. It offered a four-day thought-leadership conference featuring institutions like the Good Food Institute, SaladStop!, Big Idea Ventures, Accor, GlobaData, AgFunder, CSIRO, Euromonitor, NTUC FairPrice, SuperMeat, TurtleTree Labs, ProVeg International, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), Singapore Management University (SMU), Better Bite Ventures, Trendlines, Innovate360 and many others.

APA will return in April 2023 to offer a B2B platform for this maturing industry vertical which is estimated to be worth $36.61 billion by 2029. As many companies are seeking to address climate change while targeting affluent consumers in Asia’s markets through new sustainable and scalable products, APA looks to further give guidance also on the regulatory landscape in APAC by offering in-depth analysis in this space. Furthermore, APA 2023 will also turn its focus to the investor side for foodtech to shed light on how capital is playing its role to address sustainable practices and the growth of the alternative proteins food vertical. Since the global food system accounts for 26% of current global greenhouse gas emissions, investing in alternative proteins has one of the biggest impacts on decarbonization, with the highest CO2 savings per dollar of any sector (WeForum).

FHA-Food & Beverage Returns in April 2023

Following a successful 2022 edition, FHA looks forward to welcoming guests old and new to its 2023 edition slated for April. Meanwhile, guests can look forward to FHA HoReCa, a highly focused platform for the food service industry curated for partners in food service and hospitality equipment, happening 25-28 October 2022.

Over 800 confirmed exhibitors from 40 countries including 15 international group pavilions have been announced. It is specially conceptualised to serve distributors, importers, manufacturers and retailers from Asia under one roof all with the vision to accelerate the growth of the HoReCa industry through unveiling new-to-market innovation and sharing of best practices.