2023 SFFA
Summer Fancy Food Show 2023
by Lance Thompson on Jun 29, 2023
June 27th marks the conclusion of another great show held by the Specialty Food Association (SFA). This year's Summer Fancy Food Show was held for three days on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of June at the Javits Center in Manhattan, New York.
Since 2012, the World Trade Center of Harrisburg has been attending and exhibiting a booth alongside our partners to help expand and promote our state. With our state's various types of delicious goods, Pennsylvania has a big presence at the Summer Fancy Food Show.
PA Partners
This year a total of 42 Pennsylvania businesses attended this year's Fancy Food Show. With a variety of goods, Pennsylvania offered a lot from a country taste of amish honey and cheeses in Lancaster to our local snacks in Pittsburgh. The list of Pennsylvania businesses that attended the show is below (the companies highlighted in red are from your local South Central region):
First Experience at a Food Show
With the 2023 Summer Fancy Food Show being my first trade show that was food oriented, I was introduced to a lot of new ideas and advertising. I have attended other trade shows before, but the Fancy Food Show was different from the rest. This show is different from how interactive it is compared to others. Almost every booth had samples of their products that you could try.
Many companies tried different ideas for advertisements and samples. A majority of booths would give out samples in cups or plates. Depending on what the product is, booths would also have to-go packages of their products. Some of the bigger companies would have an area to sit down at their booth and they would serve the guests with a little show on how their product is made. All of these ideas of advertisement were put to test at the show.
The Summer Fancy Food Show is the largest food show in the United States with companies coming from all over the world. The show floor was sorted out by specific parts of the world. One of the show floors had all the businesses in the United States and they were sorted out by state. On another floor they had all of the international businesses sorted out by country. This made the show easy to walk through and stay organized.
With this being a food show, there is a lot of food that is left over after the show. This extra food does not go to waste. After the show, the vendors leave their extra food and samples to be picked up by City Harvest which is a non-profit organization that rescues food to be given to those in need. This year they were able to save 94,600 pounds of food to be given to more than 31,000 families.
If you are interested in attending or maybe even booking a booth at the next Summer Fancy Food Show, the next time it takes place is June 23-25, 2024. Visit the Specialty Food Associations website for more information.
WTC Harrisburg