Seychelles attends First Belt & Road International Food Expo 2018 |06 July 2018

A delegation from Seychelles attended the First Belt & Road International Food Expo (BRIFE) 2018 that was held in Hong Kong from June 27-29, 2018.

The team consisted of representatives from the Seychelles Investment Board (SIB), the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) and Oceanaire Seafoods (Seychelles) Pty Ltd, a private Seychelles company.

The Seychelles consulate in Hong Kong played a key role in ensuring Seychelles participation at this year’s event.

The BRIFE 2018 is organised by the China Agriculture Advertising & Exhibition Co., Ltd a subsidiary of the Ministry of Agriculture of People’s Republic of China.

The BRIFE 2018 is an expo focused on the investment opportunities within agriculture and food industry under the Chinese Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), with the aim of providing solid platform for trade, business matching and investment promotion.

530 exhibitors from 65 countries participated in this year’s exhibition.

During the event, the team networked with business delegations from across the world and conducted B2B meetings to explore investment opportunities for Seychelles.

The team also explored new opportunities in terms of products or methods which Seychelles can emulate.

Oceanaire Seafoods (Seychelles) Pty Ltd showcased its products to potential trade partners and conducted business meetings in an effort to penetrate the Chinese market.

“The exhibition provides an opportunity to understand the potential for food-based investments in Seychelles, especially those concerned with value addition to increase FDI flow in the food-related sectors and contribute towards our sustainable development goals,” stated Lenny Gabriel, deputy CEO of SIB.

“The food-related sectors play a big role towards Seychelles food security and have great potential to play a bigger role in our economy. With our small land mass it is important to always be on the lookout of new innovative methods to make maximum use of our resources. Asia is very susceptible to our fish and is viewed as a very important potential market,” he added.