Afghan traders achieved US $2.51 million in confirmed deals in Gulfood 2021, which was 2.5 times more than last year

Dubai World Trade Center hosted Gulfood 2021, the world's largest food exhibition, from February 21-25, 2020, where two CBARD-AIM Afghan exhibitors and two observers participated in the event.

To provide a safe environment to conduct business activities due to Covid-19, Dubai’s local authorities set out extensive health and safety guidelines at Gulfood. The event was held with strict preventive measures, including temperature screening, social distancing, contactless transactions, and numerous hygiene protocols.

In its 26th year, Gulfood remains the largest food and beverage industry trade event globally. It brings together the full circle of industry sectors: food & drink, beverages, food-related equipment, restaurant & café, foodservice, and hospitality. Gulfood is held every year at Dubai’s International Trade Center, the Middle East's premier trading hub. The event encompasses a total area of 1 million square feet (roughly 10 hectares) at the Dubai World Trade Center.

The tradeshow offers a unique opportunity for Afghan exhibitors to sign potential contracts with importers from around the world. The Afghan companies were immersed in what was for both of them an unfamiliar milieu of interesting yet aggressive negotiation and deal-making.

The event was organized in collaboration with various USAID-funded programs: DAI’s Regional Agricultural Development Programs East & North (RADP-E & RADP-N), Promoting Value Chain West PVCW), and Afghanistan Value Chain Crop Livestock (AVC-Crop & Livestock). Although it was the first time for CBARD-AIM Afghanistan exhibitors and observers to attend such an impressive event, it clearly resulted in many positive achievements. The five-day tradeshow generated a total of $1.1 million in signed contracts and an additional $1.5 million in potential deals for these two exhibitors. 

CBARD-AIM sponsored two exhibitors and four Afghan traders as observers, including a woman-owned business, at the 2021 Gulfood Exhibition held in Dubai on February 21-25, 2021. This activity was undertaken in collaboration with several USAID-funded projects including Agriculture Marketing Program (AMP), Regional Agricultural Development Program East (RADP-E), and Afghanistan Value Chain Crop and Livestock (AVC-Crop & Livestock). This is the second time that CBARD-AIM has sponsored its program clients to participate in Gulfood. The purpose of attending the exhibit was twofold. The first was to provide the selected traders with first-hand experience on the types of product quality and food safety standards that are necessary to effectively compete in the potentially lucrative international export markets. The second purpose was to establish business linkages with key buyers who would be interested in purchasing Afghanistan’s high-value fresh and dried fruits, nuts, spices, and fresh vegetable products.

CBARD-AIM supported two Afghan businesses at the exhibition site to display their product samples and conduct business-to-business (B2B) meetings with visitors and buyers. CBARD-AIM assisted with the design and setup of the booths, as well as with various administrative obligations. In addition to Gulfood, the CBARD-AIM team facilitated visits to Al Ras, the largest dry fruit and spice wholesale market in Dubai, as well as Carrefour and Lu Lu, two of the largest and most well-known supermarket chains in UAE. 

During the five days of the exhibition, the two CBARD-AIM supported exhibitors negotiated deals with buyers from Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria.

The exhibitors managed to sign 25 confirmed deals totaling 1,050MT, generating a sales value of US $2.51 million. Contracts were signed for raisins, almonds, pistachios, watermelon seed, and cumin that were produced in CBARD-AIM supported districts. For a complete list of products sold and the country origin of buyers, see Annex 1.

During the Gulfood 2021 exhibition, UNDP and INL introduced the CBARD-AIM team to Tiger Swan, which is a third-party monitoring and evaluation (M&E) company. The purpose was to have an independent company verify all CBARD-AIM transactions that occurred during the three-day exhibit. Hence, the CBARD-AIM team coordinated with Tiger Swan officials and facilitated the visits to the CBARD-AIM exhibitors.

The Tiger Swan company visited the CBARD-AIM booths on February 25th and conducted a survey with the exhibitors and observers to ensure everything is operating according to INL and UNDP policies. The following members of Tiger Swan visited CBARD-AIM booths in Gulfood, 2021.

Soon after the Gulfood Exhibit ended, the CBARD-AIM team arranged a market visit to Al Ras wholesale market and to the two largest retail supermarket chains in Dubai (Carrefour and Lo Lo). The purpose of the visit was to allow the CBARD exhibitors and observers to see the types of products being sold at the market, including how they are packaged, labeled, and displayed in the stores.  In addition, they were able to meet with many buyers to discuss potential deals, exchange some of their product samples, and obtain contact information for future deals. Below is the list of wholesalers in the AL-Ras market visited by the Afghan delegation.

Gulfood provides a unique opportunity for all visiting businesses, including Afghan traders, to meet with buyers and importers worldwide, discuss their business opportunities and potentially secure business contracts. The COVID-19 restrictions on social distancing forced the exhibitors to limit engaging with more than one visitor at a time. In most cases, visitors were avoiding direct contact. Instead, they were using contactless exchanges to acquire information (i.e. no business cards). In spite of these restrictions, CBARD traders were able to secure 25 business contracts valued at the US $2.516 million. Moreover, the event provided an excellent platform for advertising the positive qualities of Afghan produce for the international food and beverage community. The event opened new international markets for the two Afghan exhibitors and provided numerous opportunities for future deal-making.  Moreover, the sales data collected at the show provides some strategic guidance to CBARD on which are the key high-value products that should be targeted for exports and, including to which specific markets.