The 11th edition of Seafood Expo Asia (SEA) kicked off the first day of the three-day expo on 11 September.
The show, running through 13 September at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Singapore, brought in 363 exhibiting companies from 41 countries. Featuring 26 national and regional pavilions – eight pavilions more than in the 2022 edition – event organizer Diversified Communications said the show is 86 percent larger by area than it was in 2022. (Editor’s note: Diversified Communications owns and operates SeafoodSource).
“The event has grown considerably over last year and is the largest edition in the history of the event,” Diversified Communications Vice President, Seafood, Wynter Courmont said. “This is a great testament that seafood suppliers find value in the event to grow their business in the Asian market.”
The latest event is the second time the show has run in Singapore. The company hosted the first-ever Singapore-based Seafood Expo Asia in 2022 after announcing the move in 2020.
Multiple companies will be exhibiting for the first time, including companies from Brunei, Faroe Islands, Greece, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Exhibiting companies, Diversified said, include Huon Aquaculture (Australia), Sea Harvest (Australia), Cooke Seafood (Canada), AquaChile (Chile), Blumar Seafoods (Chile), Guangdong Evergreen (China), Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products (China), Zoneco Group (China), Bakkafrost (Faroe Islands), Saint Kerber Cancale (France), Zalmhuys Group (Netherlands), Lerøy Seafood (Norway), Salmar (Norway), Sjor (Norway) Coldwater Prawns (Norway) and Hofseth Asia (Singapore); to showcase live, fresh, frozen, canned, value added, and processed and packaged products.
The companies will be selling products to a range of high-volume buyers from retail and foodservice companies including restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, catering services, as well as importers, distributors and seafood markets, Diversified said.
“Some of the buying companies doing business at the event include Angliss Hong Kong Foodservice Ltd, Bidfood, Central Food Retail, E-Mart, Go Fresh, ITM Alimentaire International, Jumbo Group of Restaurants, Lidle & Kaufland Asia, Sainsbury’s Argos Asia, Siam Makro, SMSI/Sysco, The Walt Disney Company (China), UniCoop Firenze, Yonghui Superstores, and many more,” Diversified said.
The event is playing host to a conference program and, for the first time, the Seafood Excellence Asia Awards. The new awards competition recognizes the best new products at Seafood Expo Asia, and a round of judges spent the first day of the expo tasting and analyzing products submitted for the competition. The winners of the new awards competition will be revealed on 12 September at 10:30 a.m. local time in Singapore.
Photo by Chris Chase/SeafoodSource