Held in Auckland, Fine Food New Zealand is New Zealand’s biennial, leading trade-only food and beverage event. Fine Food New Zealand is the biggest opportunity for exhibitors to showcase their food and beverage products to main buyers and distributors in New Zealand’s food service, cafes, restaurants, retailers and supermarket chains.
The event draws around 220 exhibitors each year, with a visitor target of 6,000 across three days. Visitor numbers to the event averaged just over 2,000 on the first two days, and just below 1,800 on the final day. The largest cohort of visitors came from the Restaurant/Bar/Café/Foodservice sector (50 per cent), followed by Distributors (13 per cent), and Supermarkets and Convenient Stores (11 per cent), all looking for new and exciting product lines.
PTI New Zealand has supported Fine Food New Zealand since 2021. As an industry event attracting a significant number of dedicated visitors, it aligns with PTI New Zealand’s trade facilitation objective, which is to present a unique opportunity for exhibitors from the Pacific to engage with the ‘big players’ in New Zealand’s food and beverage industry.
This year, PTI New Zealand supported two Pacific companies to exhibit at the event, Inu Cook Islands Limited www.inujuices.com and Foods Pacific Pty Ltd www.foodspacific.com and New Zealand-based importer and wholesaler of foods from the Pacific Islands, Cibus Foods Limited www.cibus.co.nz. Each enjoyed a dedicated space (and attention from visitors) while bringing flavour, innovation and authenticity to the PTI New Zealand trade stand.
A complementary feature to the PTI New Zealand stand was chef Derek Robertson. His curated menu used products and ingredients featured on the PTI NZ stand. With live commentary, the sample tasting became a drawcard to the PTI New Zealand booths.
Overall, exhibitors were very satisfied with their participation at Fine Food New Zealand as part of the PTI New Zealand stand.
All three exhibitors rated their experience as 10/10 across all categories, including:
- overall satisfaction
- expectation alignment
- communication and support
- event organisation
- visitor engagement
All three companies recorded very positive outcomes, with one company able to close a new deal for distribution in New Zealand. Similarly, all three companies reported 3–10 hot deals to pursue with interested parties, and felt confident from the qualitative feedback received on their product authenticity, price, and packaging design.
Testimonies and feedback from exhibitors:
Fiona Hailes – Inu Cook Islands Limited
“Absolutely love these shows – great for market testing and finding niche buyers interested in natural and Pacific-made products.”
Nikunj Rishi – Foods Pacific Pty Ltd
“Thank you for the opportunity. We had high engagement and have already started following up with several buyers.”
Qiujing Wong – Cibus Foods Limited
“We thoroughly enjoyed our experience. The event gave us the platform to showcase our new range and meet a highly targeted audience.”
