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The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) will host what is on track to be the largest state pavilion at the 2011 Summer Fancy Food Show. Nearly 50 Virginia companies will showcase their wares July 10-12 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., with 26 of the state’s firms concentrated in one giant Virginia Pavilion. VDACS also will host a Virginia’s Finest information booth in the Virginia Pavilion, Booth 2929. A list of Virginia exhibitors signed up to date is online at http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/vafinest/fancyfoodshow.shtml.
In all, more than 180,000 products from 2,500 exhibitors from 81 countries will be on display, and about 25,000 buyers are expected to attend the show.
The 57th Summer Fancy Food Show is North America’s largest specialty food and beverage event. The show’s permanent home is the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York Center, but due to extensive renovations there, the show has moved to Washington, D.C., for 2011 and 2012.
Between the Winter Fancy Food Show on the West Coast and the Summer Fancy Food Show on the East Coast, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) events bring in more than 40,000 attendees from more than 80 countries to see 260,000 innovative specialty food products each year. These include confections, cheese, coffee, snacks, spices, ethnic, natural and organic products, and more.
According to NASFT, total sales of specialty foods during the most recent reporting period (2009) were $63.09 billion, with $50.34 billion of sales at retail. And sales are up for 2011. Last year, 46 percent of consumers bought specialty foods in the last six months; this year, that six-month total is up to 63 percent.
“Current trends bode very well for a successful trade show this year,” says VDACS Commissioner Matthew J. Lohr. “I encourage buyers from across the state and around the region to attend this summer and to visit our Virginia producers to sample and buy their products.”

Source: Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services