Kraft Foods, the world’s second largest food manufacturer with USD50 billion in revenues and sales in 160 countries, will be showcasing a range of its best-selling, global brands that will be entirely new to the region at the Gulfood 2010 edition from February 21 to 24. The move reflects the region’s importance as a salient world market for high quality, imported packaged foods, and Kraft Foods commitment to the region.
The products being exhibited include world renowned brands such as Planters range of nuts and snacks; a range of snacks from Kraft Foods Malaysia, including Fonzies corn snacks and Chachos Tortilla Chips; Daim, the crunchy caramel chocolate from Sweden, and Manhattan Marshmallows from South Africa. Also featuring are unique variants of Oreo biscuits which are manufactured in Indonesia, as well selected niche variants of the European brand of Carte Noir coffee, and a new range of Cote D’or chocolate.
"Gulfoods is a strategic opportunity for Kraft Foods to develop new business opportunities and expand our portfolio of brands in the region. It is also an ideal opportunity for potential buyers and distributors because the products, which will be new to the region, have immense market potential”, said Vikram Mohan.R, Business Development Manager- Exports, Developing Markets, Kraft Foods Middle East and Africa FZE.
“A global food company like Kraft Foods has a vast portfolio of products that are in demand but not necessarily present in the region. This could be owing to various factors such as the absence of an agency/distributor, or because there is no means to source these products. The region, however, is immensely important to us as 25 percent of our global revenue is from emerging markets. Therefore exhibitions like Gulfood are an important platform to showcase our global brands to potential buyers in the region”, added Mohan.
Kraft Foods will also be addressing audiences at the Gulfood Conference to share the latest global trends and developments on food safety standards. John Carter, Director of Corporate Quality, Kraft Foods CEEMA Region will be speaking about challenges of implementing food safety standards in a manufacturing environment to rolling out similar approaches in other areas of the chain including agricultural commodities, retailers, and the GS1 Traceability Standard.
“It is generally recognized across the food industry that food safety is not a source of competitive advantage. We all want the highest appropriate standards applied across the value chain, to assure the highest levels of consumer protection, where all members of the global food industry have a common platform to manage food safety and protect our consumers, wherever they may be”, says Carter who will be speaking on Tuesday, 23rd of February.
Kraft Foods Middle East and Africa, currently operates seven manufacturing facilities across the region that produce a variety of Kraft products. It also has a number of joint venture, contract manufacturing and license agreements in Morocco, Tunisia, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and South Africa. In addition to Tang, Kraft cheeses, Oreo, Toblerone, Dream Whip, the company markets a broad portfolio of iconic brands including Philadelphia cream cheese; Milka chocolates; LU biscuits; Maxwell House and Jacobs coffee; Nabisco cookies and Ritz crackers; Oscar Mayer meats.
