On February 26 the international food exhibition Gulfood opened its doors in the Dubai World Trade Centre. Over 5000 local and international companies from different countries are participating in the event. The exhibition is divided into sectors according to the profile: meat and poultry products, dairy products, grains and grain products, fat-and-oil products, canned food, beverages, healthy food, and a separate pavilion with the countries’ booths. The exhibition was opened by the deputy head of the Dubai Government, minister of finance Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum. The organizers noted that buyers demonstrated a great interest in organic and healthy halal products.

This year Russian brands are presented to buyers for the first time in the booth of the biggest Dubai distributor, Jebal, which participated in the Moscow Halal Expo Exhibition in 2016, also for the purpose of selecting promising Russian brand complying with the halal criteria. As agreed with Alif Consult, the organizer of the annual Moscow Halal Expo, the booth features the brands “Prizvanie — pchelovod” (Beekeper), natural herbal tea from Caucasus “EcoKavkaz”, which was chosen the Halal Product of the Year in 2016, and other brands.

Similarly to the last year, the ministry of agriculture of Russia organized the exposition. This year it got expanded and incorporated, among other things, the biggest Russian manufacturers of halal products. In particular, that included such brands like Ekol (the most well-known halal meat producer), Belaya Ptitsa, Elinskiy food factory.

The CIS countries are also exhibiting their products at the event. Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Belarus are among the most active participants in 2017. The companies and brands from Brazil, USA, Tunisia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and India are widely represented at Gulfood 2017. India has national expositions almost in every pavilion.

The exhibition will be open until 2 March.