UK artisanal foods on the rise

LONDON - From 2-4 September the Specialty & Fine Food Fair took place in the heart of London. It is UK’s leading showcase of fine food and drink. Most of the visitors are owners and founders of specialty food shops, independent retailers, buyers or caterers. 64% of these visitors still rely on trade fairs to seek out new artisan food and drink produce, as a recent investigation among them indicates. And a lot of those – more or less - novelty products were present at the fair. 

Located in Kensington, the Olympia exhibition center was the place where many national and international gourmet food lovers gathered beginning of September. In the Discovery Zone on the top floor you could meet brands that are new to the UK market, like the beautiful tea flowers from Flora tea, the dairy free hand-crafted cheesecakes from Portobello Attic and the artisan cheeses made with milk from their Cow-with-Calf herd from The Ethical Dairy. The Drinks Cabinet was set up in partnership with Fentimans to find on-trend drinks. Definitely hot are the botanically brewed soft drinks, often mixed with spirits. And still gin is here top favorite, although not new to the market, gin sales doubled in value in the total UK market in just five year’s time.   

Also in the UK, bigger retailers are more and more interested in smaller food brands. Sainsbury’s and Ocado participated in Pitch! a stage where preselected start-ups could pitch their concepts and got instant feedback from the buyers. In the Savour the Flavour section, people could watch Chef Steve Walpole making some new recipes during workshops like ‘Mysteries of Chocolate and their Perfect Pairings’ and in the Food for Thought sections fresh perspectives on the industry were given and exchanged. Seasonal trends, the food-on-the-go market, glimpsing into retail of the future and of course presentations of newcomers to the market in ‘Start-Up Spotlight’ - all came by on this stage. And of course, many Great Taste Awards and Fresh Discovery Awards stepped by. What to think of Fresh Thyme & Blackberry Ketchup, handcrafted Indian Spices and organic Nut Butter? What we should do with the Burnt Cashews from Rancrisps or the Pure Extra Virgin Olive oil from Picualia we still need to find out, of course not all concepts were great novelties and sources of  inspiration. However, if you are inspired by this info and missed this UK fair, you can visit the Vakbeurs Foodspecialiteiten in Houten, The Netherlands on October 1 and 2. 

TEN the export network advises and supports food & beverage companies that are aiming to broaden their horizons. They co-ordinate food export activities, encourage business development projects, and create new international links. TEN also helps improving the standard of existing export activities, and operates as SIB advisor (Starters International Business, an initiative of the Dutch government) for SMEs. For more information have a look at http://www.theexportnetwork.nl or contact TEN for a first meeting: http://www.theexportnetwork.nl/contact/.