For me as a buyer, visiting Alimentaria is an opportunity to be present in one of the most dynamic trade shows for food industry. This fair gives me the opportunity to catch the latest trends and innovations in the market as well as discover new and innovative products, trends and solutions. Nerveless is also a chance to meet with current suppliers and get to know potential new ones.

Our participation in Hostelco through the Hosted Buyer program allowed us to connect directly with manufacturers of products for the hospitality industry, experience their innovations live, and strengthen our network of contacts. This event represented a key opportunity to position ourselves within the sector and optimize our meetings with strategic manufacturers. We would like to highlight the excellent organization by the Hostelco team, which made this trade show a truly productive and enriching experience.

I have heard of Alimentaria as a show for quality product but have not actually visited the show. When the Hosted Buyer programme reached out to me, I decided to squeeze Alimentaria into my travel schedule this year and forgo an Asian show as I am currently sourcing for both Singapore and Malaysia.

The experience of participating in Alimentaria is enriching and stimulating to continue developing haute cuisine and bringing it to Mexico, both to retail chains and to the Horeca sector. I have had the opportunity to learn a lot and exchange contacts with professionals. I am sure that the connections I have made here will be valuable both on a personal and professional level.

Thanks to the Hosted Buyers program at Hostelco, we had the opportunity to discover the latest developments in the sector, especially valuable for us as a Colombian company attending the trade show in search of new trends, technologies, innovative products, and the chance to establish strategic partnerships with Spanish companies. Hostelco has opened up a world of business opportunities that we can replicate in our country to benefit the tourism sector.

Fino Foods Australia has been visiting Alimentaria for many years now and we are pleased to participate again in 2024. Alimentaria is a fantastic event where we are able to explore many of the artisan producers in Spain who are leaders in their craft. We are also able to visit other producers we have developed business relationships with. Many exhibitors we have met at Alimentaria have become valued suppliers for our business in Australia.

Spain, in other words, is a country with energy, vitality and it's one of the most powerful agriculture, livestock and wine producing country on the planet. My mission is to discover Spain's superior products and find promising companies able to build good partnership with Samsung Welstory. Alimentaria exhibition are very diverse, futuristic and has excellent characteristics in mediterranean sea. Very excited to meet world best premium olive oil, authentic Mediterranean food, Iberico pork, agri-processed food.

During the scheduled visits I attended sometimes together with other buyers, I was able to make new contacts, and with some of them, we are already in negotiations. I especially appreciated the strong focus on sustainability shown by the majority of suppliers, which is a top priority for our hotels. It’s a great opportunity to generate business and build new relationships.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to visit Alimentaria. It will be my first year and first time in Barcelona, and I am very excited about the opportunity to start doing business with Spain, as we do with so many other countries. In our company we have a target that 7% of our sales, which represented U$1.2billion in 2023, will come from imported products. And I am sure that Spanish products can be one of our main suppliers.