Thomex.com
It's not only India's sustained economic growth and IT prowess that it's known for, there is yet another dimension being added to India’s economic profile - the hospitality sector. A reflection of this fact was visible at the Aahar International Food Fair 2008 being organised at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi which was attended by a large number of national and international dealers.
The show which caters to industries like food, food processing, hotel and restaurant equipment & supplies and organised by India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) is being hailed as one of the biggest show of its kind in Asia. You walk-in to any of the stalls and you will not be left untouched by sense of optimism and elation.
"The hospitality sector has grown manifold during the last ten years. The current rate of growth which is 15% is sure to sustain and will further give a boost to the industry," said Ravinder Singh of Bangalore who had come to the show to buy cooling and refrigerating equipments for his hotel.
There were many like Ravinder Singh who had come on the first day of the show to make sure they don't miss out on the latest trend in hospitality, be in ceramics, interiors, cutleries, cookery or serving or latest equipments.
The exhibition which was supported by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India and All India Food Processors’ Association, showcased products from Food processing, Packaging, Mill machinery and equipments, Milling machinery, Poultry farm equipment and supplies, Dairy & confectionery equipment to Air-conditioning, refrigeration & cold storage systems,
The show assumed special significance as most of the key players of the industries participated in the show including Celfrost, Antarctica Equipments, AWK Hotel wares, ANI Glass Corporation, Eezpack, Fine Organics, Alto Shaam, the Butler Hotel Super Market, Hamilton Beach, Turbo Chef and many others.
Talking on the expectation and response from the show, Neeraj Seth, MD Celfrost who was himself at the venue to supervise the team said, "On the first day, we received a Reliance team from Mumbai and got a good response. As the initial days are only warm-ups, we look forward to better response in days to follow," he said.
Rakesh Chandra who was handling the clients' queries at Celfrost further informed that the response this year was better than the previous one as more and more people were coming to find out about the products. The show also made sense, he said, "As 60-70% of serious queries get mature over the period."
There were others like Gaurav Mittal of Antarctica Equipments who equally seemed happy and satisfied with the visitors' response. "The response this year is certainly better than the last year as we are getting more than 65 enquiries every day. The show is value for the money for the exhibitors," Gaurav said.
Gaurav, like other exhibitors, also agreed that to make the show more effective, there should be proper filtering of visitors. "People bring small kids to the show. There are others who come just for the sake of fun. Such people should not be allowed and only person holding business card should be given access to the exhibition," said Gaurav.
Salim Siddiqui of AWK Hotel wares who was showcasing his products was not left unimpressed with the positive response he received from the businessmen. "Our products find wide utility in hotels, restaurants and other such places. We are getting people from different parts of the country who seem interested in our products," he said.
The show had also put on display organic food, which was getting popular among certain section of the society. Ramesh Jain, a trader who had come from Chandigarh to buy organic food said, "The show was a good exposure to me as I came to know of various other food cereals which were grown organically in different parts of the country," he said.
