Post Show Report HOFEX 2015 Achieved Tremendous Success! HOFEX 2015 had come to a successful closing on 9 May! Delivered a bigger show in size with 5 new highlights in this edition, HOFEX 2015 drew a total of 38,053 trade buyers during the 4-day show, of which 26.97% came from overseas, to source from 2,418 exhibiting companies from 57 countries and regions. The Asia’s first prime meat tradeshow – Meat @ HOFEX - is highly rated by the industry and had captured a lot of attentions. With the expansion of the show floor and exhibit variety, we saw 14,341 buyers, accounting for 37.69% of total visitors, visited HOFEX 2015 for 2 days or more. Heartfelt thanks to our exhibitors, buyers, sponsors and supporting organisations who contributed to the triumph of this record-breaking event! Origins of Buyers - Total of 38,053 buyers 157 4,273 232 44 1,294 27,790 801 347 2,216 875 Meat @ HOFEX Created the Benchmark for Prime Meat Event HOFEX launched Asia’s First Prime Meat Tradeshow – Meat @ HOFEX – this year, which had generated a great deal of attention and accolades for being the pioneering meat event. It was a magnet for industry buyers who would like to source the top-notch meat product worldwide and learn more about the skills and knowledge of butchery and meat handling. Congratulations to Mr Pang Kin Wan from Beef Speciality Store Tajimaya Ltd, who was crowned the highly sought-after title of The Best Butcher in the Butchery Skills Challenge - firstly held in the world-renowned Hong Kong International Culinary Classics. The 1st ACE Awards Represent Innovations in the Industry The debuted ACE Awards – Asian Catering Equipment Awards, co-organised with the Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI), had its award ceremony held on 6 May in Hall 1A, where gathered some leading suppliers and manufacturers of catering equipment in the region. The event aimed to recognise the greatest minds designing and producing kitchen equipment that improve efficiency, lower costs, and reduce negative impacts on the planet. The Best of the Best Award was given to Adande Matchbox with Hydrocarbon (Manufacturer: Adande Refrigeration, Exhibiting Company: Oriental Engineering Co Ltd), which was also the winner of the Heavy Overall Design & Innovation Award. Hong Kong Café of the Year Crowned the Best Café in Town Sure to be among the most popular destinations once again was the Grand Barista Championship (GBC); together with the Grand Latte Art Championship (GLC) and the first Coffee n Food Challenge (CnF), in which contestants must brew up the perfect coffee to pair with a selection of confectionaries, which gave an interesting test to the baristas’ taste buds and coffee knowledge, and had taken the coffee industry in Hong Kong to a new level. The first Hong Kong Café of the Year, the café that achieved the overall highest scores of the three competitions, went to Segrafredo Zonetti Espresso, and their baristas Cherase Ng & Brian Cheng had also won the Champion of the GBC; while the Champion of the GLC and CnF went to Lux Wong from CoCo Espresso and Jonathan Fan, who joined as an individual, respectively. Strongly supported by International Pavilions Across the 14 exhibition halls of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, these international exhibiting groups showcased the best from their countries, some even have more than one pavilions in the show! Many of them have already reserved their space in a bigger size for the 2017 show to be held on 8-11 May 2017!