HOW AFRICAN SMES ARE LEVERAGING THE PLATFORM TO ACCESS THE AMERICAS MARKET
BY KEMI AROSANYIN
The World Trade Center Miami organizes the Americas Food & Beverage (AF&B) Show annually at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Founded in 1997, the show has since grown to become a global market access platform delivering great results to food and beverage companies seeking to enter or expand their footprints in the Americas marketplace.
Recognized as one of the largest Americas focused food and beverage trade shows in the Western Hemisphere, the show recorded its most impressive edition yet in 2023 where it featured more than 700 exhibitors, 16 country pavilions and over 7,300 attendees from 93 countries.
In 2016, “Africa Pavilion” was added to the show to support African exports into the United States and to increase the utilization of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) – a preferential trade program which has served as the cornerstone of U.S.-Africa relations over the past two decades.
Since then, the pavilion has become a popular section of the AF&B show featuring 35–40 companies from 8–10 countries every year. Many African countries including Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo – Brazzaville, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda have taken advantage of this great opportunity to enhance visibility for their products in the Americas market, and have gained valuable market exposure to the Caribbean, Latin America, Canada, and Mexico.
The pavilion had a remarkable continental representation at the 2023 show exhibiting great products – Ethiopian coffee with its unique aroma, sugarloaf pineapple from Republic of Benin, organic food products from Ghana and Zena Exotic products from Senegal. The companies were immersed in three days of bilateral meetings, partnerships, conferences, and networking as the show continues to offer excellent market entry pathways for small and medium-sized businesses across Africa.
The Ethiopia Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations has played a key role in advancing the goals of the pavilion having attended every edition since the Africa pavilion was created at the show. “Every year, we lead a large delegation of Ethiopian businesses to Miami for the show because we recognize the commitment of the show organizers in supporting export growth from Africa by providing African exhibitors free access to trade seminars during the show which has deepened our participant’s knowledge of the Americas market” says Wubie Mengistu, the Secretary General of the Chamber.
“Miami, Florida is the best market entry gateway to the Americas market especially for food products from all over the world. We are determined to build global competitiveness for Ghana’s organic food products by leveraging this platform”, says Ambassador Nancy Sam who coordinated Ghana’s first appearance and exhibition at the show last year.
Abdoulaye Sow, the President of Dakar Chamber of Commerce said, “the show is very strategic, it increases the awareness of our products in the market, and it helps Senegalese businesses to connect with buyers, suppliers and distributors in the U.S. as well as Latin America and the Caribbean, thereby enabling us to use one stone to kill multiple birds”.
The operation of the pavilion has not been without challenges. In 2022, the Africa pavilion witnessed its lowest participation since inception due to visa delays and high number of visa rejections. It took the intervention of the Office of Congressman Carlos Gimenez and Congresswoman Maria Salazar before we saw progress in this area.
The 2024 Americas Food & Beverage Show, scheduled for September 16 – 18, is expected to be bigger as the World Trade Center Miami has joined forces with a major Latin American show organizer – Informa Markets, to present a co-located event with Food & Hospitality LATAM.
