Exclusive: Gulfood Manufacturing 2025 prepares to open its doors

As a pure trade show spectacle, Gulfood Manufacturing stands among the globe’s premier events for its sheer scale, atmosphere, and sense of genuine ambition.

Having previously reported from Dubai World Trade Centre on a number of occasions, its packed halls showcasing some of the latest equipment, systems and ingredients have proved gamechanging for the region and wider global market.

Indeed, last year the event celebrated a decade of operation, with the event retaining its momentum throughout that period, including notably being one of the very few places to have managed to continue on through the pandemic in using impressive hygiene control measures that cemented its place as a true trade show hub.

This year’s event, between 4-6 November, is no different in its scale, with major manufacturers for the confectionery sector in evidence. This includes the likes of Theegarten-Pactec, Ishida, Aasted, Alland & Robert, Cargill, Buhler, WDS, Cama Group and TNA, and many more besides, it offers an eclectic mix representing the sector’s boldest talents.

As we’ve discovered, one of its key strengths has been that many companies have in fact chosen the show as a regional launch for equipment and systems, that has ensured a genuine buzz across its show floors each November.

Global gathering
For the 2025 edition, organisers confirm that more than 2,500 exhibitors will be participating from 72 countries spread across 22 dynamic halls, showcasing cutting-edge food manufacturing solutions and trends, that are primed to drive future food production solutions.

As the venue explained, the event, as ever, offers a key opportunity to stay ahead of the competition through its expanded series of education sessions, as well as array of equipment and systems on show across the three-day showcase.

Its Food Tech Summit gathers the region’s key sector talents, exploring some of the latest trends that have placed innovation and ingenuity at their heart.

Furthermore, as the organising team noted, there will be the chance to take
in groundbreaking innovations – at the prestigious Gulfood Manufacturing Industry Excellence Awards, bringing with it further key networking and engagement opportunities.

This year, the show spans five event categories including ingredients, processing, packaging, supply chain solutions, and control and automation for an immersive event experience.

Gulfood’s 2025 edition is set to open its doors between nov 4-6. Pic: Neill Barston

Among the core themes this year, there will be a renewed focus on how to deliver operating efficiency, delivering responsible sourcing and traceability in supply chains, as well as addressing potential barriers in new marketplaces.
Once again, advocating for sustainable industry standards and practices will also play a central role in proceedings – especially with the UAE being a region facing its own environmental tests.

This has led to key breakthroughs in exploring innovative water and wider ecological initiatives, as well as harnessing green solar energy sources, that hold huge potential within the region.

Sense of major anticipation
As for Gulfood Manufacturing itself, its deliver is set against a backdrop of equipment sales for the Middle East nearing $10 billion by latest industry estimates, with the wider region’s demand for sweets, snacks and other culinary categories enjoying strong fortunes.
Indeed, in an exclusive interview with Confectionery Production, Mark Napier, vice president and director of events at Dubai World Trade Centre, expressed his optimism for this year’s show.

“The preparations are going fabulous. It’s going to be a record breaker – our largest edition yet. The show now occupies every single square metre of exhibition space here at the Dubai World Trade Centre, at around 110,000 square metres.

“There will be over 2,500 exhibitors, and participants for 110 countries around the world. From talking to the teams working on it, there’s something really important driving this interest – there are global economic headwinds now, with the environment of tariffs makes it difficult for people to know where to trade and set up, which is rippling right through the supply chain now.
“However, in Dubai and the UAE in particular, it’s seeing the benefit of strong Free Trade agreements, with very good global connections, trading across East, West, North and South.

“Where we are seeing manufacturers slow production in traditional heartlands, they are now relocating and expanding here in the Middle East itself. They have created a very attractive manufacturing landscape here,” noted the vice president.

He explained that the success of the immediate region was having a tangible knock-on effect on trade shows such as Gulfood Manufacturing in offering key opportunities across the value chain, from ingredients, through to machinery and logistics services.

Notably, the Middle Eastern location remains famed for being a business hub across multiple sectors, which in itself has proved a pull factor for many ambitious companies and individuals across market segments, looking to potentially base themselves in the region.

Gulfood manufacturing 2023. Pic: Neill Barston

The vice president added: “The UAE has always been a very attractive place to ex-pat communities, and created a very welcoming and safe and pleasant environment to live, and certainly I’ve noticed many more fellow Brits relocating here. I think that’s a reflection of how hard it is to get ahead in some parts of the world, and how attractive it has been made for people to relocate here.”

As he noted, the future potential for the event is immense, with organisers noting that its recently created Dubai Expo Centre offering even more space to grow over the coming years. Indeed, the UAE’s notably youthful demographic appears intrigued by tech, trends and culinary experiences, so there’s no shortage of demand locally for the shows such as its sister event, ISM Middle East focused on finished products, which we focus on with our review in this section.

“One of the things about Gulfood is that machinery represents a significant capital expense. So, for many who attend shows around, the exciting thing is that people are actually writing deals on the show of the floor. This just shows how fast the market is moving and how people are reacting to that,” enthused Mark of the must-attend show that continues to offer up plenty of engaging Middle Eastern treats.