The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the country's oldest business organisation, has joined hands with the Cologne-based Koelnmesse, the organisers of the much-acclaimed food and drink exhibition, Anuga, to present the Annapoorna World of Food India show in Mumbai on November 1-3, 2006. FICCI launched the World of Food India brand in Hyderabad in 2004.

The show, which will be spread over 8,000 m² of exhibition space in Hall 1 of the Bombay Exhibition Grounds at NSE, will attract exhibitors from the food, wine, alcoholic beverage, hospitality, retail, in-flight and railway catering industries.

India is the third major Asian country, after China and  Thailand, where Koelnmesse are entering in a big way. Food and drink companies from 11 countries are participating in the show, but the most notable confirmation yet has come from the American Importers Association.

Food, drink and catering companies from Australia, China, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and The Netherlands, beside the major domestic players entering the Indian retail market, have announced their participation in the show.

The delegation of the Florida-based American Importers Association will include a group from the wine industry, which will be in Mumbai specifically looking at prospects of importing Indian wine into America. The delegation will make a detailed two-hour presentation on do's and don'ts of doing business with American companies.

"It presents a great opportunity for wine producers to showcase their portfolio of products to an international audience and share their 2005 vintage with F&B decision-makers from hotels and restaurants in Mumbai and the neighbouring areas," Indian Wine Academy President Subhash Arora said.

At the show, the Indian Wine Academy is organising an area dedicated exclusively to Indian wine producers and importers. To be called the Indian Wine Academy Pavilion, the area will have facilities for guided tastings both for international exhibitors and domestic F&B decision-makers as well as one-on-one meetings.

Participants in the fair will get listed in the exhibitors' directory on the Koelnmesse web site, which is visited by every major decision-maker in the world food, beverage and catering industries.

As a spin-off of Anuga, Annapoorna will benefit from the international network of the world's largest food and drink fair. "That's an advantage that we intend to exploit to the full," said Wolfgang Kranz, Executive Vice President, Koelnmesse. Together with local partners, Koelnmesse has been successfully staging Thaifex - World of Food Asia in Bangkok since 2004.