Foodex Japan 2024 showcases NL Pavilion featuring 'Future Food Lounge'

On 8 March, Foodex Japan 2024, a 4-day annual trade show specialized in food and beverage, was concluded successfully. The trade show, the largest in its kind in Asia, attracted more than 76.000 professional visitors. At the NL pavilion, organised by ExportPartner, as many as 16 Dutch food & beverage exporters joined forces in showcasing a wide range of premium Dutch products to disseminate the strengths of the Netherlands F&B industry: sustainability and innovation.

NL Pavilion with 16 exhibitors

Visitors from retail, food service, trade firms and media showed interest in the exhibited products: smoked Atlantic salmon, cheeses and cheese spread, toast, wafers and other bakery products, plant-based crab and seafood, plant-based meat and bacon, plant-based dairy products, legume, millet and vegetables. Matthijs Wolters, Deputy Head of Mission of the Netherlands Embassy in Tokyo opened the NL pavilion and exchanged views with exhibitors on export opportunities.

Matthijs Wolters (in the middle) opens the NL Pavilion

Future Food Lounge

This year, in support of companies contributing to the transition to a sustainable food system, the NL Pavilion featured a "Future Food Lounge ", showcasing sustainable, healthy food products of 10 exhibitors. The Future Food Lounge was equipped with a demo kitchen, where tastings of dishes produced by Mr. Toshiyuki Kato, a Michelin three star chef, were served to visitors.

Future Food Mission

On the day before the fair, the Future Food Lounge exhibitors attended a briefing seminar and a working luncheon hosted by Denise Lutz, Agricultural Counsellor, at the Residence of the Netherlands Ambassador. The seminar served as a gateway to Japan, by providing practical information from a wide line up of speakers, all of them well versed in the field of food and beverage import and market trends,  and able to guide Dutch exporters to set their first footsteps into the lucrative yet complicated Japanese market (Briefing seminar programme for the Future Food Mission 2024)

To help them obtain better insight into the Japanese import and distribution system, the mission members had extensive meetings with two important players in the food and beverage market. They got a guided tour in nation's one of the largest shopping malls, followed by a meeting with buyers and merchandizers from one of the largest retail chain in Asia. NIS Foods Service Corporation, a leading F&B importer, visited the Embassy to meet the mission members and to learn about their products.

Denise Lutz opens the briefing seminar.
Future Food Trend Mission at the Netherlands Ambassador's Residence

Foodex Networking Reception

On the 3rd day of the show, Denise Lutz, hosted a networking reception to introduce the NL Pavilion exhibitors to potential Japanese importers/distributors and buyers at a restaurant nearby Tokyo Big Sight, the show venue. The reception, attended by ca. 60 people, served as a platform for fostering bilateral commerical relationships. 

Dutch F&B promotion in Japan

The Netherlands Embassy in Tokyo looks back at a successful collaboration with Mr. Guido Jacobs, the organizer of the Future Food Mission and Mr. Daan Busscher, pavilion organizer of ExportPartner. Together we hope to continue our endeavours to enlarge the presence of the Dutch F&B sector in Japan, in particular of sustainable and innovative food products.  We will continue promoting Dutch food products to the Japanese consumers and businesses through our website “The Netherlands Food Style”, launched last spring.

List of NL Pavilion Exhibitors

- BioNatin (colustrum powder and related products)
- Daily Dairy Holland (cheese)
- Foppen (smoked Atlantic Salmon)
- Madegood (allergen free healthy snacks)
- Trigon Food (trader of A-brands & price competitive food products)  
- Van der Meulen Melba Toast (melba toast)

Future Food Lounge Exhibitors
- Future Food Group (plant-based products)
- Grunchy (plant-based bacon)
- Helwa Wafelbakkerij (wafers)
- JML Group (trader of sustainable food products)
- Koninklijke Eru Kaasfabriek (cheese and dairy)
- Lika Bakery (bread)
- New Green (fruit and vegetables)
- Nightwatch International (plant energy drink)
- Pulsbio (gluten flour, grains and seeds, dried nuts)
- Symfonio (power grain)

  • Future Food Mission members with the speakers of the briefing seminar

  • Company presentations to NIS Food Service Corporation a

  • Guided tour at Aoen Makuhari New City shopping mall

Inquiries:

Participation to Foodex 
Daan Busscher (NL Pavilion): daan@exportpartner.com
Guido Jacobs  (Mission): guido@exportpartner.com

General inquiries on the Japanese F&B market:
Denise Lutz, Agricultural Counsellor
Chitose Hatakoshi, Agricultural Officer
tok-lnv@minbuza.nl