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ProWine Asia Singapore 2018 hailed a gateway to Southeast Asia
More than 7,000 trade visitors from across Asia attended the four-day ProWine Asia Singapore 2018 last month, affirming Singapore’s role as a gateway to Southeast Asian market said the show’s organisers.
Jointly organised by Messe Düsseldorf Asia and UBM, and part of the ProWein World Series of leading trade fairs for wines and spirits, the trade fair was held from 24 to 27 April alongside the 40th anniversary edition of Food & HotelAsia (FHA), the region’s leading food and hospitality trade event, which welcomed 81,896 attendees.
In total, 7,218 visitors attended the ProWine show with 40% coming from outside of Singapore, mostly from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
“The Southeast Asian consumer is becoming increasingly relevant to the global market and coupled with their openness to new wine and spirits products, the strong representation from the international wine and spirits community here at ProWine Asia is testament to the region’s significance,” said Marius Berlemann, director of ProWein and global head of Wines & Spirits at Messe Düsseldorf.
For companies wanting to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia and looking to expand their export market, “from the overall feedback received on high quality and range of visitors and the promising leads gained here, all point to the success of the trade fair as an integral face-to-face trade platform for the wines and spirits community,” he added.
Commenting on the synergy of the two trade fairs, Rodolphe Lameyse, project director, Food & Hospitality, UBM, said: “To see strong collaborations and business contacts forged between the food and hospitality, wines and spirits industry for yet another edition reaffirms the cross-over value of having ProWine Asia co-staged with FHA. The extended line of wines and spirits on display will serve to enhance the sourcing objectives of FHA attendees through a varied and wide selection of labels from around the world.”
ProWine Asia 2018 included a line-up of 300 companies from 33 countries including 14 national and country groups with the largest coming from Spain, Italy, and France, as well as first-time participation from Croatia, and a showing from up-and-coming wine countries such as India, and Thailand. Also high on the list of products at the trade fair was an expanded exhibitor presence of biodynamic wines, craft beers and the debut of Southeast Asian wines.
On show for the first time at ProWine Asia were award-winning wines from the Siam Winery (Thailand) and Grover Zampa (India). This ‘Asian element’ to the trade fair was well-received by visitors, particularly for Kerta Widyawati, president of the Indonesia Sommelier Association Bali Chapter: “This is a great start to have some of these wines being featured at an exhibition, which is really a gem for ProWine Asia,” he said. “There have been many new developments in Asian wine regions which is only going to keep on growing. I look forward to seeing more at the next edition.”
For first time exhibitor, Padre Azul, the first Austrian company to produce Tequila, ProWine Asia proved to be the ideal setting for their product, “to explore the fast growing Southeast Asian region” as they signed three contracts on-site to distribute the Mexican spirit in Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
Reinforcing the appeal of the Southeast Asian market was returning Portuguese exhibitor Real Cave do Cedro, who said coming back to the trade fair was an easy decision in order to meet their expansion plans for this region. “Southeast Asia is an exciting and fast growing new market for our winery.
“We have placed our orientation in this market as we believe it will be a very important region for wine businesses in the near future. On our end, we are pleased to have met with new customers from Southeast Asia and beyond,” said CEO, Ricardo Aleixo.
The third edition of ProWine Asia (Singapore) will take place in 2020, from 31 March to 3 April at the Singapore Expo, alongside FHA Food&Beverage. The sixth edition of ProWine China, will be held later this year, in Shanghai from 13 to 15 November 2018.
The next ProWein in Düsseldorf will take place from 17 to 19 March 2019, while ProWine Asia (Hong Kong) is from 7 to 10 May 2019.