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France indulges in Sweets Middle East; bringing many mouth watering delicacies to confectioner lovers!

Following the success of its first edition Sweets Middle East will be increasing its size this year, as is the French Pavilion! Six French companies will participate to the 2008 edition, showcasing their irresistible delicacies to sweet lovers. Sweets Middle East, will take place from November 3 - 5, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. The French Pavilion, representing 78 square meters will be located Hall 7 stand F-2.
The region's growing taste for sweets and snacks is developing into one of the most dynamic sectors of the global food market, according to the organizers of Sweets Middle East 2008. Market statistics estimate that Middle East consumers spend billions of dollars on food every year, with the foodservice market in the GCC worth more than US$31 billion annually. French products benefit from a good image as far as gastronomy is concerned and Sweets Middle East is the ideal platform for the French sweets, confectionery and snack industry to reach across the region. Last year only one French confectioner was present at the tradeshow: Patrelle offering a range of fun and magical sweets for kids; whereas this year there will be six: Biscuiterie de l'Abbaye, Monbana, Confectionary Houses Pinson and Bonté, Chateau Blanc, Chocmod and Aux Anystiers du Roy all presenting their delectable offerings. A wide range of biscuits, traditional and old fashioned French candies, innovative chocolate fondue sets, fine chocolate powders and premium chocolates to accompany coffee, macarons and chocolate truffles will bring visitors a taste of France's most mouthwatering sweet specialties.

"We are very proud to be able to present such an array of French specialties at this new edition of Sweets Middle East." commented Eric Santier, Regional Managing Director for Sopexa Middle East. "The interest for confectionary in the region is booming and we have noticed a meaningful demand for French products such as macarons and chocolate truffles, typical French delicacies. I'm certain that Sweets Middle East is a great opportunity for France to highlight and differentiate its high quality offering in the confectioner's world, as well as to exchange ideas and meet key distributors." The presence and the increase in size of the French Pavilion at Sweets Middle East show how willing the French "sweets" industry is to develop its sales and penetrate the lucrative Middle East markets.

About the French Pavilion Exhibitors

- Biscuiterie de l'Abbaye
Biscuiterie de l'Abbaye is a family owned business located in Normandy. Over the years it has preserved the traditions of its original recipes and prides itself in using only top quality local basic ingredients such as Isigny AOC butter. The Biscuiterie de l'Abbaye's bakers work hard to produce with the utmost perfection even the simplest of recipes. For several decades, the Biscuiterie de l'Abbaye has placed healthy foods and organic experience at the service of their customers offering a very wide range of products. Their integrated Research and Development Department develops new recipes according to each customer's specifications. The Biscuiterie de l' Abbaye is certified ISO 9 001; ISO 14 001and IFS.

- Monbana
Monbana has always been committed to creating a chocolate dream world for gourmets, helping them experience new sensations.

Master chocolatier Louis Guattari founded the company Monbana in 1934. Three generations were to follow at the helm of an industrial company of human dimension, solely dedicated to chocolate. Over the decades, Monbana acquired acknowledged and expertise in the creation and distribution of top quality chocolate powder. Since the outset, Monbana has always created new and creative ranges that are delicious, such as the first range of flavoured chocolate powders in 2003. This launch quite naturally took the firm on to create the concept of "Gourmet Drinks" aimed at developing and promoting the consumption of chocolate drinks in cafes and hotels. In 2008, Monbana had the widest range of chocolate powder of any player on the market: from traditional to more mellow through smooth... something for every taste.

Meanwhile, Monbana was diversifying its business, creating chocolate accompaniment products.

Leader already by 1978 with Neapolitans, small chocolate squares that became a must with coffee, Monbana has continued to develop its accompaniment products. Neapolitans, chocolate almonds, Pralinéa, Crousti-Neige, Perle de Myrtille and biscuits (Spéculoos, Mini Cookies, Galets de Quimper)...a great number of delights to be found in cafés and restaurants, fine food shops and coffee roasters. Following the arrival of Yves Guattari at the helm of the company, the Monbana brand began to clearly position itself at the top end of the chocolate market by developing a general public offer.

Monbana is now the French chocolate maker with the widest range chocolate varieties. Montbana is present in over 50 countries worldwide with two subsidiaries in the United States and Great Britain.

- Confectionary House Bonté & Pinson
The Confectionery House Pinson was founded by Mr. Pinson in 1895 near the Loire River in Nantes, Western France. At that time the city played a major part in the sugar trade and was the home of many candy manufacturers. Today, only one remains: The Confectionery House Pinson. The company has perpetuated their great know-how and is now considered as the specialist of old fashioned sweets. Besides, Pinson has proved to be innovative over the years by adapting to the ever-changing consumption trends. The quality of the ingredients, which are used in Pinson's recipes, is a key to their success. All products are made with natural colouring and aromas, which we are divided in three must-taste ranges: Traditional, Caramel & Honey, and are presented in beautiful colourful tins.

Renowned for their great traditional know-how since 1860, the French Confectionery House, Bonté, strive for excellence and value the authenticity as well as the quality of their products. They offer the very best hard and filled old fashioned candies. Fine confectionery "connoisseurs" will find their happiness in the Bonté's collection of exquisite tins and stylish gourmet boxes.

- Chateau Blanc
Château Blanc marries traditional recipes from French bakeries and pastries with ultimate high-performance industrial tools. Sharing the Holder group values, Château Blanc is an ambassador of French culinary traditions just like the Paul bakeries and Ladurée Salons, the other companies of the group. Château Blanc will be presenting its macaron offering at Sweets Middle East. Macarons became famous in Paris more than 100 years ago. Ladurée was the first to create this sweet delicacy and was one of the most famous around the world. The Holder Group created the Brand Chateau Blanc in April this year to develop the macaron offering for the mass market retailers and consumers around the world. With a wealth of experience from the other members of the Holder group, Château Blanc is able to answer to the Middle Eastern customers expectations thanks to its unique, traditional and authentic products.

- Chocmod
Launched over 60 years ago and available in 20 countries, Chocmod specializes in chocolate truffles, fancy truffles, original and flavored truffles, organic truffles, with no added sugar truffles, other specialties on display will be their chocolate coated marshmallows.

- Aux Anystiers du Roy
Aux Anystiers du Roy is specialised in chocolate fondues offering over 28 different varieties in dark, milk and white chocolate. Aux Anystiers du Roy bring a new concept to chocolate fondue: that does not need a fondue set or to be reheated every ten minutes, as the chocolate fondues are presented in hand crafted stoneware, that can be microwaved and this will keep the chocolate warm and melted for up to 45mins! Only high quality covering chocolate with no vegetal fat is used and all the Dark Chocolate Fondues contain a minimum of 70% cocoa. Aux Anystiers du Roy has been present in France, EEC, USA, Canada and Australia the past eight years and is now proud to bring its products to the Middle Eastern market.

About French Confectionary
With French confectionery exports to the region worth over 100M Euros in 2007, 82M in 2006, it is becoming an increasingly important export market. The Middle East region depends heavily on imports to fill the gap between limited domestic food production and demand from a growing population base. The rapidly growing young population and the ever-increasing number of ex-pats makes the region one of the top destinations for food and drink, with 80% of food sold in retail outlets being imported. Future expectations are excellent and the annual growth rate of about 6% is expected to stay stable on that level.

The French "sweets" industry has a huge variety to offer, from sweets & confectionary to biscuits, chocolates and ice cream. French confectioners have developed their expertise for the pleasure of the young and the old for over 5 centuries. The traditional know-how has been handed down from one generation to another taking great care in maintaining taste quality and genuineness. Furthermore, France boasts a number of regional specialties renowned throughout the world, such as Nougat from Montelimar, Calissons from Aix, shortbread cookies from Brittany and candied chestnuts from Ardeche.

The « sweet product » sector plays an important role in the French agribusiness industry with exports progressing every year. In 2006 France exported over 1,9 billion Euros worth of confectionary and other sweet products, 12% more than in 2005. The major export markets are in Europe (Germany, Spain..). The Middle East is the 2^nd export market, excluding Europe, after Algeria, with a total revenue of 82 million Euros, up by 22% in comparison to the previous year.

- Sweets & confectionary: treats for all ages
Originating from a strong know-how that has been set in French culinary traditions for over five centuries, French sweets and confectionary compose a large family. Hard boiled sweets and lollipops, gum drops, fruit jellies, marzipan such as Calissons, pastilles, chewing-gum, liquorices, nougats, marshmallows, candied fruit... and over 600 regional specialties... the French sweets & confectionary scene is one of the richest worldwide. Furthermore, it represents over a hundred companies and thousands of master confectioners. Nearly 6000 people are employed in this sector and the annual turnover in 2006 was 1,23 billion Euros. The total production accounted for 236,000 tons in 2006 featuring 20 different varieties of sweets as well as the regional specialties.

- Chocolate: "food of the Gods"
The French are renowned for producing some of the best types of chocolate in the world. The greatest French "Chocolatiers" use high-quality cacao and traditional techniques to create a harmonious and balanced blend of rich flavours and complex nuances for a taste that almost defies description. The quality of the chocolate is critical for making the very finest bonbons and varied chocolate candies, patisserie and even chocolate for drinking, therefore French chocolatiers are committed to using the truly superb chocolate. Furthermore the profession of chocolatier in France rests on a thorough knowledge of traditions and an intimate relationship with the product. The knowledge of how to blend variously sourced chocolates with differing cacao content to create the lusciousness-factor, the mouth-feel and the visual appeal, as well as the chocolatier's signature style are assets that the French chocolate industry are proud to master.

The French chocolate industry is made up of 56 companies, representing 13,000 employees that produce 90% of the chocolate in France. In 2006 France exported over 11,5 million Euros worth of chocolate to the Middle East representing 1,633 tons.

- Cakes & Biscuits: tasty classics
The origin of the word "bizcuit" is from French and means "eighty times cooked". The cake & biscuit industry in France is the heir of a very old French culinary tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. Cakes & biscuits come in a variety of tastes thanks to a large choice of recipes and wide range of biscuits: dry biscuits and snacks, egg based biscuits and wafers, patisserie and chocolate biscuits, and assortments, madeleines, cakes, waffles, gingerbread, filled biscuits, pound cakes and sponge cakes, regional specialties,... Only the finest ingredients are used by the French biscuit industry which continually strives to excite and delight consumers of all ages as well as being committed to address health and nutritional issues.

The production of biscuits is present all over France even though it is mainly concentrated in the West, which represents more than 50% of the global production. This is explained by the fact that the biscuit industry first developed near ports because they were very popular amongst sailors for their long conservation and nutritional assets. Over 60 companies of all sizes compose the French biscuit industry, employing up to 13 000 people. In 2006 the annual turnover was of 2,2 Billion Euros, ie 584,000 tons.

- Ends -

About SOPEXA
SOPEXA is specialised in marketing and communications for the French food and beverage industry. SOPEXA acts as a counsellor to the French authorities in terms of promoting French food and agricultural products worldwide. It also conceives and implements communications campaigns on behalf of its clients - French businesses and generic organisations - to promote their "made in France" food and drink products and brands world-wide.

SOPEXA, Key Figures

• SOPEXA has over 40 years experience in French foods.

• SOPEXA has a fully integrated network established in France and 39 foreign countries covering 90% of French export markets.
• SOPEXA in the Middle East is represented by an office based in Dubai

For further information, please contact:
Sabrina KAUPP
MAJLIS PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Tel:050 455 3213
Email: Sabrina@majlisdubai.com


Kishani GUNASEKERA
MAJLIS PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Tel: 050 455 3213
Email: kishani@majlisdubai.com

Eric SANTIER
Sopexa Middle East
Tel:651 24 77
Email: Eric.santier@sopexa-dubai.com

© Press Release 2008