MARKETING & TRADE
Gulfood, 17-21 February
Gulfood is the world’ s largest food and beverage expo and it has been running for 30 years. Almost 100,000 people from 195 countries attended, making their way around 5,000 stalls. A giant image of Murray the almond kangaroo was on the wall of the trade booth and lots of people stopped for photos. The Australian Almonds industry event at the Novotel pool on the evening of Day 3 drew a crowd of 100 people. This year there was a focus on engaging with Middle Eastern customers, but almond buyers from India and other parts of the world were also in attendance. Dash Dharwan, the CEO of Food Specialities Limited and Shaji Mathew the Managing Director of Spring Valley General Trading took part in a question and answer session with ABA CEO Tim Jackson giving the crowd an insightful perception of the Australian almond industry.
TOP: Ben Fessey from ofi and Jack Loh from Murray Downs Almonds responding to customer inquiries at Gulfood.
ABOVE: At Gulfood are Brenton Woolston- Almondco, Jake Langdon – Almondco, Paul Stewart – Almondco, Mark Williamson – Nut Producers Australia, Tom Cooper – Almond Board of Australia, Aashay Chavan – Select Harvests. Seated from left to right are: Mimi Doan – Hort Innovation, Tim Jackson – Almond Board of Australia, Melissa Wyness – Almond Board of Australia.
Looking ahead
ABA CEO Tim Jackson ran a Q & A session with Shaji Mathew from Spring Valley General Trading and Dash Dharwan from Food Specialities Limited at the Australian Almonds industry event at the Novotel on the evening of Day 3 at Gulfood.
Gulfood will be held at the end of January in 2026 and is set to be split across two sites, making it twice as large. The date for next year’ s MEWA is January 22 to 25 in Delhi. The ABA’ s marketing team is now focusing on bringing Indian almond buyers to Australia later this month and this will be followed by a delegation from China in April. Both groups will visit almond processors and see the crop being harvested.
industry. australianalmonds. com. au
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