Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) has announced plans to expand Gulfood, the leading food exhibition, across a total of 80,000 sq m of exhibition space in 2009, creating the largest trade event of any kind ever held in the Middle East.

DWTC are the organisers of the Middle East’s largest exhibitions: Gulfood as the largest trade event and Gitex as the largest trade and consumer event.

The ambitious plans were unveiled on Wednesday at the successful inaugural edition of 'Ingredients Middle East,' which concluded today.

The Middle East’s first trade exhibition dedicated to raw materials and ingredients has generated a strong response from the region’s fast-evolving manufacturing and processing industry, with particular interest from groups specialising in Halal food.

Occupying the entire available space within Dicec, Gulfood 2009 will also expand into the Dubai Airport Expo, creating a mega-exhibition.

The additional space at Airport Expo has generated huge interest and is already 70 per cent sold out, said a top DWTC official.

'The expansion of Gulfood will provide the space necessary to accommodate the hundreds of international companies who are currently on the waiting list and meet the demands for the Middle East’s foodservice market, estimated to be worth over $31 billion annually. Of this, the GCC accounts for almost $9.5 billion,' said Helal Saeed Almarri, DWTC director general. 

With this expansion, comes the co–location of 'Ingredients Middle East,' which showcases raw materials and ingredients.

In bringing together the food and hospitality industry including 'Restaurant & Café Middle East' with the more industrial components such as ingredients, packaging, processing and labelling, the events will form the definitive trade platform and deliver a unique global offering.

'The region’s food, beverage and hospitality industries are diversifying and developing at such an impressive pace that we believe it is essential to create an event of comparable size and comprehensive scope.'

'By expanding across the twin venues and co-locating Ingredients Middle East, Gulfood will form the Middle East’s largest trade event for any industry, and develop one of the world’s top trade platforms for the food, hospitality and beverage sectors right here in Dubai,” Al Marri said.

This year’s Gulfood attracted more than 2,900 companies and over 39,000 trade visitors, while the Ingredients Middle East event has successfully brought raw material providers from Europe, Asia and Africa to the Middle East.

The expansion also positions Gulfood to enjoy ongoing growth for its planned transition to Dubai Exhibition World, the major exhibition facility currently under construction that will offer 120,000 sq m of exhibition space in its first phase.

Exhibitors at the ongoing Ingredients Middle East exhibition lauded the decision as “visionary.”

“Dubai is really surprising the whole industry with the ambition and strategic reach of the events it is organising for the food and beverage sectors. The combined events will provide an invaluable platform to bring suppliers and buyers from around the world to forge new relationships and drive the growth of the industry,” said Matthias Schneider, key account manager, Mainfrucht GmbH, a German-based supplier.

Companies already booked for the 2009 edition of Ingredients Middle East running alongside Gulfood include Griffith Laboratories and country pavilions from South African and Thailand.

“Extra space will be necessary for the next Gulfood exhibition because a lot of smaller countries like South Africa have a lot to offer to the Middle East market but have difficulty showcasing all its products due to the limited space at Dicec, said Annalize van Zyl, R&A co-ordinators of Promotions and Exhibitions, South Africa.

'The Airport Expo will help us all to g