Giving a major impetus to the tea, coffee and allied sectors, the fourth edition of the World Tea Coffee Expo (WTCE) ended on a successful note in India's commercial capital Mumbai attracting more than 3,400 targeted business visitors from the country and abroad.

The expo witnessed striking of bulk deals, joint ventures/alliances, franchise enquiries, appointment of marketing agents and generation of large number of business leads, said the organisers.

India’s only globally recognized tea and coffee show had on display innovative products, machineries, equipment, technologies and vending solutions from 67 companies to over 3,400 decision makers visiting from countries like Russia, Singapore, Iran, US, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal and UAE in addition to buyers from across India.

Apart from India, companies from Italy, US, China, UK, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka also participated as exhibitors.

A key highlight was the pavilion from Tea Board of India and Sri Lanka Tea Board besides a two-day high level conference discussing issues facing the sector and skill imparting workshops on the closing day.

Visitors included senior level decision makers comprising retailers, wholesalers, distributors, hypermarkets/multi-product retail chains, tea/coffee estate owners, potential franchisees, HoReCa sector professionals many of whom placed large orders with exhibitors.

“Further to positive reviews from Exhibitors and visitors alike, the 5th Edition of the expo in 2017 is also planned to be held at Mumbai – the commercial capital of India and a centre which attracts serious buyers from all parts of the country and the globe,” remarked Priti Kapadia, the director, Sentinel Exhibitions Asia Private, the organisers of this unique trade show.

According to her, the expo was the perfect platform for tea and coffee companies to come together under one roof to showcase their products, network, share learning and experiences and find suitable solutions to the industry’s problems.

This niche trade fair was inaugurated by Saroja Sirisena, Consul General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai.

Speaking at the launch, she said: "India and Sri Lanka can share their natural advantage to ensure leadership in global tea and coffee markets. Organized trade platforms like World Tea & Coffee Expo can go a long way in forging larger business partnerships."

Most of the exhibitors were upbeat about the expo and expressed satisfaction at having taken part.

Mansour Aldawood, Arab Dalla Trading Establishment, from Saudi Arabia said: "For unique and exclusive products like ours we could not have asked for a better platform than WTCE. We got statistics of customer needs and can implement a best-in-class demand planning strategy."

Grahame Hackney of Instantina UK, pointed out that the company had been participating for the last two editions displaying its unique coffee products and it can be said that there is no better expo that gives such focused and quality visitors.

"WTCE is heading in the right direction as far as Tea & Coffee industries are concerned," he noted.

Bhuman Dani of TGL, observed: "For a start-up tea company like ours, WTCE turned out to be an excellent platform to launch our innovative products and in turn get national recognition among the stalwarts of the Indian Tea industry."

Uday Udani of the Pacific Plastics Industries, said: "We never expected such tremendous footfalls and have generated a good number enquiries for our packaging machineries which we hope to convert into actual business."

According to Anil Chandhok of Chenab Impex, the expo was a good experience and the company drew good response from visitors for its displayed imported teas.

"We had many visitors from different buyer sectors, which we would not have met otherwise," he added.

Piyush Monga of Synergy, Infrastructure Solution, pointed out that WTCE was a perfect place for all its products, as it not only got good branding but also a lot of genuine business visitors who were interested in the tea and coffee premixes.

Rekha Agarwal of Sira Impex, said: "For our slimming tea - which we had also exhibited in the 2015 edition - we can say that the 2016 expo has matured in terms of size, exhibitors and visitors."

Rajesh Surana of Tetrahedron Beverages stated that it had been a part of WTCE for 3 editions. "We can now safely give our verdict that this has been one of the best in terms of visitor quality, publicity and branding."

Sanjay Gupta of Budwhite Teas noted that WTCE this year had surpassed all its expectations in terms of visitors and leads generated.

"The quality of the visitors this year was business oriented," remarked Gupta, a third time exhibitor.  

Aditya Agarwal of Lajwab Tulsi Tea, said: "It was a right decision to exhibit for the first times at WTCE & we are sure with such great management & perfection, this show is bound to grow larger year after year."

Buoyed by the tremendous response, the organisers are now planning to make the 2017 edition much larger in terms of content and size. The dates of the event are likely to announced soon, they added.-TradeArabia News Service