The largest Philippine food expo is back with a vengeance, celebrating its 15th year this Aug. 5 to 8 at not just one but two ginormous venues.
The World Food Expo will be held not just at the World Trade Center this August but simultaneously at the SMX Convention Center.
A shuttle service will be available to bring customers from one venue to another to check out the more than 500—yes, 500!—exhibitors comprised of food manufacturers, distributors, hoteliers and restaurateurs, industrial suppliers, even slow food advocates.
This is the most comprehensive gathering of people in the food industry and you will find items ranging from fresh produce to ingredients to packaging materials, to processing technology to finished products.
The show has grown and traffic is now hitting 15,000 for the four days of the expo. But what makes it special is this audience of 15,000 is comprised of not just ordinary walk-ins but targeted traffic.
“It’s the most efficient way to promote yourselves because you may reach a lot of unexpected markets,” said Joel Pascual, founder of PEP Group, the organizer of Wofex.
Prodigal son succeeds
Wofex wasn’t always this big.
Pascual shared that he and his friends just took a leap of faith.
Pascual started Wofex with a couple of friends after he left the family business.
“I was a prodigal son,” he shared. “I left the family business because I thought it was a dead end for me. I promised my dad I wouldn’t compete with the family’s refrigerating business so I really wasn’t sure what to do. At that time, I was involved in a lot of associations so my friend suggested we do trade shows.”
His friend said they should start small but he suggested they go big. And when he read an article that said that only two industries—food and beauty—would survive any crisis, he decided to make the trade show about food, focusing on processed foods and imported foods.
Pascual felt that it was better to focus on a niche market.
“I said, let’s target a niche market first: processed foods, imported foods. That’s how we started. We did not meet the monster head on. Eventually, all of the allied industries started migrating to us,” Pascual recalled.
Slowly but surely, the World Food Expo grew. “We started getting more and more exhibitors because they appreciated our service,” Pascual shared.
Soon enough, Wofex became the biggest food expo in the Philippines.
10-year challenge
By the expo’s 10th year, the world started to take notice, with individuals as well as institutions from abroad asking for 10-20 booths.
“So we took a leap of faith,” Pascual said, “With about six-seven months to go, do we let them go or do we dive into a second venue (to accommodate them)? We chose to get a second venue, SMX. And I’m happy to share that on our first year, we filled it up again.”
Philippine Culinary Cup
To add to the fun, the organizers also started hosting the Philippine Culinary Cup.
They started it six years ago to bring all foodservice professionals to the event.
In coordination with Le Toque Blanche Philippines and the Philippine Culinary Cup, professionals and amateurs alike now compete using international standards in culinary competitions.
“Competitions have always been a good way of upgrading the skills and knowledge of the local foodservice professional by pushing them to be creative, by submitting themselves to international standards of competition and by leveling themselves against some of the best culinarians from around the world,” Pascual explained.
Truth be told, the competition almost never came to fruition.
Pascual explained that Le Toque Blanche set the standards so high “that making it feasible seemed like an insurmountable task.”
They had to install 15 professional kitchen stations, fly in 25 foreign judges and get the endorsement of the World Association of Chefs Societies.
“On top of this, they required strict implementation of the highest competition standards and coming up with an international cast of competitors—these are just some of the initial hurdles that had to be considered before we can even say yes to the project,” Pascual shared.
Because of the determined pursuit to produce a competition that would be at par with the more established competitions in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and other Asian nations, the Philippine Culinary Cup is now considered one of the best culinary competitions in Asia.
“There are 1,600 competitors and half of them are international teams. We also import 27 foreign judges who are certified by the World Association of Chef Societies (WACS), Pascual added. “We are always proud that the gold medal you get here is acceptable worldwide because it’s endorsed by WACS and therefore lives up to a world standard,” Pascual stressed.
Secret of success
How do you organize these events every year and manage to always remain so calm and collected, I asked Pascual.
“We just recognize that it has always been bigger than we are,” he said.
Pascual is also very proud that some of the exhibitors that started with them have become big brand names.
Malagos Cheese, for instance, was picked up by Philippine Airlines for their First Class and Business Class menu after spotting them at Wofex. Achievers, a chocolate bar that was first exposed at Wofex, is now distributed at SM stores nationwide.
Regional expansion
Ten years ago, Wofex started bringing the trade show to the provinces as well to assist industry players who want to join the trade show but could not afford to bring the teams to Manila. Since then, Wofex has been brought to Cebu, Davao, Palawan, Baguio, Boracay and Iloilo, and soon in other cities that are heavy on tourism.
“We consider this our CSR (corporate social responsibility) because we don’t earn much but are able to bring products and technology to the market,” Pascual emphasized.
This year, aside from the usual industry players, we will also see booths from slow food advocates such as Chit Juan.
It’s definitely going to be an exciting trade show, bigger than ever.
Make sure to wear rubber shoes for all that walking and shuttling from World Trade Center to SMX. Tickets are only P200 each.