Record Number Of Food And Beverage Professionals At Kosherfest 2008 ,

Thousands of buyers, retailers and other food professionals attended the recent two-day Kosherfest 2008 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, as the largest kosher food, foodservice, beverage and wine and spirits trade show in the world celebrated its 20th year.

"We welcomed a record number of buyers from all over the country and the globe to Kosherfest 2008," said Bill Springer, the show's director. "With the change in venue from the Javits Convention Center in New York City to the Meadowlands Exposition Center, we were able to offer a more convenient and affordable location to both buyers and exhibitors, which we believe helped attract the record number of visitors this year. This is particularly rewarding in light of a difficult economy that has affected other trade shows in the retail and hospitality industries."

In addition to 250 exhibitors - some first timers - and hundreds of new products, Kosherfest presented a two-day program of well-attended special events and industry seminars addressing such topics as kosher restaurant trends, new kosher cookbook trends and the state of the kosher industry. Kosherfest also showcased products from 28 countries, including Israel, England, Argentina, Malaysia, Taiwan, France, Italy, Canada, and Serbia.

Held for the first time was the Kosherfest Sushi Competition, which included a seminar. The event created strong interest and excitement from buyers, exhibitors and the media, with Simply Sushi of Monticello, New York, unanimously chosen as the best in the competition.

Said Menachem Lubinsky, Kosherfest show founder and co-producer, "The strongest trends presented at Kosherfest 2008 involve the presence of more products that are gourmet, exotic and/or healthy. This was evidenced at the show by the variety of exotic meats - such as elk and bison - a large showing of new wines from producers from all over the globe and a great number of gluten-free foods."

In his state of the industry address, Lubinsky made note of the current shortage of kosher meat, expressing confidence that the "forces of the market would soon generate new sources of kosher meat." He added that despite the unstable kosher meat market, the industry as a whole experienced double-digit growth for the eighth year in a row.

Kosherfest is co-produced by Diversified Business Communications of Portland, Maine (www.divbusiness.com) and LUBICOM (www.lubicom.com).

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Record Number Of Food And Beverage Professionals At Kosherfest 2008 ,