The traditional Summer Fancy Food, the largest food fair in North America that brings together companies and producers of food specialties from all over the world, a sector worth 150 billion in annual sales, will be held at the Javits Center in Manhattan from the 23rd to the 25th of June. There will be over 2400 companies present, with more than 200 thousand specialties: in short, there will be a wide choice for every palate. And as explained by Phil Kafarakis, president of the Specialty Food (aka the organizing association), that weekend the Javits Center “will be the best place to see the trends, learn, network and conduct critical business to help serve every customer base and build success for 2020″.
And neither this year our country will forfeit its traditional leading role in the New York fair. As the director of the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) of New York, Maurizio Forte reminds us “Italy is historically the foreign country with the largest presence, both in terms of number of exhibitors and occupied area, obviously after considering the American companies ”. And in this edition, explains Forte, the Italian Pavilion has brought together 245 companies, in addition to another 40 Italian companies that will participate with individual stands, and to those exhibited in the importers’ stands. In total, 300 companies will represent the Belpaese and all its regions at Fancy Food, “and 10% of exhibitors will talk about Made in Italy”.
But which Italian food sectors will have a significant presence? “As always, the categories in which Italy is the leading supplier in the USA are represented: extra virgin olive oil, pasta, vinegar, cheese”, emphasizes Forte. “Recently, there has been encouraging data on the increase in market share of cured meats, which are also well represented at the next Fancy Food”.
An Italy still in the foreground, therefore, that does not fear comparisons, “given the variety and the number of Italian presence at the fair, which is expression of our sectoral leadership”, observes the director of ITA. Then of course: “France is our competitor for wine and cheese and mineral water, Spain for olive oil, and Canada for pasta. And at the fair, these dynamics will also be repeated “.
The Summer Fancy Food will also be an opportunity to discover the news and new trends in Italian food. And it is no coincidence because, as Forte states, “the Italian food sector is characterized by the ability to combine tradition with innovation, both in terms of process and product, and in terms of use”. In recent years, the major innovations have been recorded “in the packaging, in the healthiness of the products, in sustainability and in traceability. All this while remaining faithful to tradition and territory “.
As for the political and international panorama surrounding Fancy Food and the ever-present specter of Trump’s tariffs, Forte notes that, to date, “there are no definitive measures in this sense, so for the moment we are continuing our action to promote the authentic Italian product to American consumers, who seem to be increasingly attentive to quality and nutritional aspects ”. No alarm, for now: “Obviously, the hope is that an agreement will be reached between the US and the EU and that there will not be a trade war”.
Translation by Yula Lapina
