After four frantic days of promotions, tastings and hard-nosed commercial dealings Fine Food Australia, the largest food industry event in the antipodes, closed its doors at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday.
With tens of thousands of industry professionals and buyers attending, the show is a vital platform for overseas producers to strut their products.

Panayiota Tsangaridou, Cyprus’ official trade representative at Fine Food told Neos Kosmos that like Greece, the graph of Cyprus’ exports to Australia has been heading up for some time, and that Fine Food had provided a valuable platform for Cypriot exporters.
“Total exports from Cyprus to Australia in the last five years have increased over 19 per cent, from €3.6m in 2007 to €6.7m in 2011,” said Ms Tsangaridou.
“It’s been a positive week, and with this show, our producers believe trade with Australia will increase.”
Globally, Cyprus exports some €626m worth of food products, with 60 per cent going to the european market. Haloumi cheese accounts for nearly half of all Cyprus’ exports. With companies like SA Bioplants offering products like green tea, diversification away from traditional cheese products was clear to see at the Cyprus stand.
Neophytou Trading, presenting their Serano dried nut and fruit products for the first time, was one of the many Cyprus-based companies signing with an Australian distributor. Three companies offering new haloumi cheese products also signed contracts with importers.
George Charalambous, Managing Director of Crown Imports who was promoting both Cypriot and Greek products at Fine Food Australia – from trahanas to desert wines – told Neos Kosmos that for his company and its Hellenic partners, it had been a very productive week.
“We’ve been promoting new lines and we made a lot of deals. Customers didn’t realise the variety that’s available to them, and that was exciting to see.

Neos Kosmos