Wednesday, Nov 25, 2015

Abu Dhabi: Global trends in the food and beverage industry will be the focus of this year’s SIAL Middle East, which will be held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec) from December 7 to 9.

This year’s event will feature over 900 exhibitors, buyers from 50 major airlines and 30 international pavilions, organisers said.

“Our new-look line-up for this year covers the full spectrum of issues linked to innovation and global food trends, including sustainable food consumption and organic trends, improving local sourcing, the rise of eat and tweet trends and fresh approaches to reducing waste,” said Ali Yousuf Al Sa’ad, Chairman of the organising committee for SIAL 2015 and Acting Director of Communications and Community Service Division at Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) at a press conference.

The exhibition has various segments including On Board Catering which provides a platform for the travel catering industry in the Middle East.

“The number of passengers arriving at GCC airports is expected to reach 450 million by 2020 compared with just 144 million three years ago and 750 million in-flight meals are currently served by regional airlines each year,” said Fadi Saad, Director of SIAL Middle East.

He said $86 billion is being spent by regional airports on expansion and Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha international airports, already have a combined annual capacity for 190 million passengers.

“It is this growth in passenger traffic that once added to accelerated global network plans, that is driving significant in-flight catering service demand,” he added.

Staff Report

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