Road to Hong Kong: One month and counting

The second annual Asian Seafood Exposition is just around the corner, taking place from 6 to 8 September at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center in Hong Kong. The event is designed to connect retail and foodservice buyers as well as distributors with suppliers of live, fresh, frozen and packaged seafood products and services looking to access the growing Asia-Pacific and Hong Kong seafood market, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to SeafoodSource.

Last year's inaugural event attracted more than 100 exhibiting companies from 20 countries and more than 5,000 buyers from 61 countries. The 2011 show will see a 12 percent increase in participating companies, at 115 companies, and a 29 percent increase in exhibit space. Also, there are eight new exhibiting countries - Ecuador, France, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Turkey and Uruguay.

The 2011 show will also feature 14 country pavilions, including China, the Philippines, Malaysia, United States, Korea, India, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Russia and Australia.

Once again, the event will be held in conjunction with Restaurant & Bar Hong Kong, a trade show for the region's hospitality sector.

New to this year's Asian Seafood Exposition is the Key Buyer program, which specifically targets top-level, volume seafood buyers at multi-unit retail, foodservice, hospitality and government establishments. A new products showcase will feature the latest products and trends launched in the region's seafood market.

The Asian Seafood Exposition is also hosting a seminar on the safety of Japanese seafood. The seminar will take place on 7 September and feature an official from Japan's fisheries agency, part of the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The official will talk about the policies in place to ensure that Japanese seafood is safe and free of radiation following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. The seminar will be moderated by SeafoodSource Editor Steven Hedlund. Stay tuned for more information on the seminar.

The Asian Seafood Exposition is organized by Diversified Business Communications of Portland, Maine, which also runs the European Seafood Exposition and International Boston Seafood Show and publishes SeaFood Business magazine and SeafoodSource.com.