UK Africa Food & Drink EXPO Trade visit 2012

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EVENT OVERVIEW

The main focus of this trade visit is to improve the processing and packaging of food and drink sector in African countries towards addressing both the immediate and future security needs of the continent, with the assistance of the strong UK Food and drink sector, which directly employs up to 400,000 people, and as many as 1.2 million in ancillary services; it accounts for 16 of the UK's total manufacturing sector by value; and it is an invaluable partner to British agriculture, buying two thirds of what farmers produce with a turnover of £76.2bn, with a gross value added of £20.9 bn.

Overall, the UK Food and Drink sector has a lot to offer African Agriculture sector, mainly in building adequate capacity to process and package their harvested agricultural produce into a variety of manufactured products to satisfy economically local diverse population, as well gaining access toforeign markets, particularly markets with large African diaspora and later to mainstream consumers in the lucrative markets.

The product sectors which make up the food and drink industry in the UK cover a vast range of foods from Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery, Bread and Bakery Snacks, Bakery Ingredients, Yeast, Breakfast Cereals Canned Fruit and Vegetables, Cereal Ingredients, Coffee, Crisps and Snacks, Dietetic Food, Dessert Mixes, Fish and Fish Products, Foodservice, Frozen Food, Herbal Infusions, Ice Cream, Margarine and Spreads , Meat, Oat Milling, Organic Food, Seasonings and Spice, Soft Drinks and Fruit Juices, Soya Products, Soups, Snacks, Nuts and Crisps, Starch, Sweet Spreads (jams, marmalade, Tea, Vegetarian and Meat-free, to Yogurt and Chilled Desserts.

Regular contacts with companies and professional or trade groups at events such as this one been organised by the African British Business Association (AfBBA) can immensely benefit African food and drink manufacturers both acquiring machinery and equipment, skills for developing their own local products, but gain the knowledge to enter the international market with their own products. AfBBA is seeking to develop partnerships between African countries and the UK Food and drink on a mutually supporting and longstanding sustainable basis, which should recognise the needs of bothsides for growth and development.

On one hand African countries have an urgent need to deal with the pervasive problems of food security on the continent, the effects which are often seen in form of catastrophic adverse weather and famine, as well as the man-made problems of for example poor management of food. Often, there are sufficient agricultural production produced in many countries, but is estimated that up tohalf of the annual production is wasted due to poor storage, processing, packaging and distribution logistics to the consumers and overall the level of wastage generated are disproportionately higher than in many developed economies. The UK food and drink sector can play pivotal role in assistingdecision makers, businesses and community organisations in becoming more efficient as well as benefit for growth to its own market through such partnerships.

The UK Africa Food & Drink Expo 2012 Trade visit a 3 day event is designed to inform participants about the UK Food environment processing and packaging, it is made up of a short briefing/seminar, also offering the opportunity to attend five UK premier packaging exhibitions, which will enable participants not only to meet global suppliers, service providers and other stakeholders in the industry, observe the latest development in technology and innovations in the food and drink sector, but additionally enable the delegates to attend a variety of seminars and short presentations at the FOODEX show.

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