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Panela (brown sugar paste), pulp and fresh fruit, pandebono (cornbread) and dehydrated uchuva, are some of the Colombian products that have been the most popular at Anuga 2011, the most important food fair in the world, now taking place in Cologne, Germany.
" I came for the sugar and dehydrated fruit, but I have seen other product I just find amazing," said Francisco de Quevedo, buyer from Spain. " The idea is to migrate ethnic products to Spanish products through the Colombian offering, which provides business opportunities for products like powdered ' panela' , which is just wonderful," he added.
Supported by PROCOLOMBIA, 29 Colombian food exporting companies arrived at the fair: nine on an exploration mission and 20 as exhibitors at the bakery and hot beverage, frozen foods, beef and fine food exhibition halls, with the intent of finding new business partners to enable them to diversify their markets.
Among the 3,500 exhibitors at the fair, Colombia has stood out for offering products with exotic flavors that are both different and healthy, important requirements for the attending foreign buyers who are approaching the 150 thousand mark, according to the information provided by the organizing team.
" Colombia' s food industry is famous for its excellent fruit and, especially, because they are not very widely known. Nobody grows them, only you Colombians do. That is why I have already spoken to some growers and the plan is to close business deals in the coming days," explained Martin Schachner from Germany.
Without regard to nationality, whether European, Latin American, from the United States, Arab or Asian, the opinion is widely spread among the visitors of the Colombian sample tasting buffets, where they can try anything from ' pandebono' , ' panela' as a sweetener and ' yuca' . " I have enjoyed them very much, they have a very original flavor. But what most grabs my attention is the warmth of Colombian entrepreneurs," said Damian Oosterbaan, from Sweden.
Gaurav Mehra, from India, shared the same opinion. " As does my country, you grow some tropical fruits that the rest of the world does not. The plan, therefore, is for us to join efforts and take advantage of the Middle Eastern and European markets. The doors are open."
The Colombian offering goes all the way from frozen fruit like uchuva, mango, melon and gulupa, natural powdered ' panela' , frozen bovine beef, precooked cornstarch and a variety of soluble, powdered and granulated coffees, among others.
" You should exploit those products more, because there are evidently opportunities in different markets. You have endless potential," said Beat Neuenschwander, a Swiss buyer who came looking for fruit pulp and left with the possibility to import ' lulo' and ' asai' concentrates, two flavors he had never seen or heard of before.
That is precisely one of the goals set for Colombian exporters: to put ' Colombia at the tip of everyone' s tongue,' the name given to the strategy the country took to the fair.
" That is the idea some of our products are unknown by the European countries," said Ricardo Vallejo, Exports Vice President for Proexport.
Colombia is participating for the first time with a country exhibition stand at Anuga, the fair which was visited for many years by national exporters on an exploratory mission.
This time, Colombian products took a huge leap with the firm objective to conquer the international palates.
