11 July 2016 – Philippine Consul General to New York Mario L. De Leon, Jr. joined participating Philippine companiesand the Philippine Trade and Investment Office in New York (PTIC-NY) in successfully promoting native mango and coconut products to the US East Coast and Canada at the 62nd annual Summer Fancy Food Show held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Accompanying him were Trade Representative Katrina Banzon and Consul Felipe Carino, director of the economic section.
Two companies from the Philippines, Mandaue, Cebu-based Profood International Corp. and Butuan City-based Celebes Coconut Corporation, promoted native products that use organic ingredients and are produced using sustainable practices. Profoods produces dried fruit snacks, such as mango and coconut, and different tropical fruit drinks Celebes specializes in producing coconut products such as desiccated coconut, coconut oil, and milk and coconut water. Both companies have made great headways in the US West Coast food market and have partnered with leading wholesalers such as Walmart and Costco in offering their products in mainstream US stores.
Consul General De Leon encouraged the participants to continue expanding internationally by promoting products that can compete in different market segments such as in halal or kosher certified markets. He also assured them of the government’s continued support for Philippine products competing globally on a level playing field and internationally-accepted rules on Fair Trade.
The Summer Fancy Food Show, held from June 26 to 28, features 2,550 exhibitors from about 50 countries and 180,000 food and beverage products. Visitors can sample the various products of almost every booth at this annual show. Other international participants included Asian country pavilions such as India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Thailand. There were even domestic U.S. booths with food offerings from states like Virginia, Kansas and Minnesota.
The annual show is organized by the Specialty Food Association, which is a non-profit trade association with over 3,200 members that are dedicated to producing, discovering, innovating and marketing foods that are new, unique, and different and are of outstanding quality.END