The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) in collaboration with the Embassy of Sri Lanka in France, organised Sri Lanka’s participation at SIAL Paris 2024 – one of the world’s leading F & B exhibitions held once in two years in France.
It was held from October 19-23 in Paris.
Local F & B businesses representing a wide range of sectors such as coconut-based products, confectionery items, cashew and savoury products, frozen and processed food, and value-added innovative products made use of this opportunity to enhance their business opportunities.
This year, the EDB enabled the participation of 19 companies via the Sri Lanka Country Pavilion in two halls. The participant firms were: Alpex Ceylon Tea, Adamexpo, Adamjee Lukmanjee Exports, Consolidated Business Systems, Planto Ceylon, Samagi Spice Exports, Bespice, Rancrisp Marketing, Expo Commodities, Maliban Biscuit Manufactories, Tropikal Life International, Global Trading Services, Unistar International, Ceylon Plant Food, Healing Life International, Enrich Tea & Food Exports, New Lanka Cinnamon and HJS Condiments. A special feature of Sri Lanka’s presence at the 2024 edition of the premier French F & B trade fair was the EDB, organised
A special feature was a dedicated promotional area for EU PGI-certified Ceylon Cinnamon products of 10 business entities to enable their entry to the EU market. The International Finance Corporation provided financial assistance for this.
Samagi Spice Exports, Pasanka, Jaith Ceylon Cinnamon, Kurunegala Plantations, Saviru Spices & Naturals, Cenica Exports, Uruwala Estate, Aikya Agro, K.P. Somadasa and Company and SDS Spice were the beneficiaries of this initiative. The Sri Lankan Embassy in France, led by the Sri Lanka Ambassador, Manisha Gunasekera visited the Sri Lanka Pavilion. The Embassy also organised a social media campaign in French and English for period for over five weeks.
The EDB also organised a webinar series before the exhibition for individual participants/companies highlighted by SIAL Paris.
A promotional video was produced by the Embassy featuring well-known French Chef Dominique Pambrun promoting PGI-certified Ceylon Cinnamon in the French market.
The participating firms secured confirmed orders to the value of over US$ 2.8 million from the EU and other region buyers by the end of the show, an EDB spokesman said.
This year’s edition was bigger than ever, with 11 halls for 10 food industry sectors that brought together 7,500 exhibitors representing 127 countries, displaying over 400,000 products.
