Italian food stars No. 1 at New York’s “Summer Fancy Food” with more than 300 companies

Beloved, iconic, imitated, universal, Italian food is certainly a boast for Italy and represents an important slice for our economy. Once again this year, it will be the protagonist of a major event, “Summer Fancy Food” No. 68, scheduled from tomorrow to June 25 at the Javits Center in New York, and with the Specialty Food Association (Sfa) at the forefront. We are talking about the largest event dedicated to specialty food in North America, one of the leading food fairs in the world. An appointment, therefore, of reference on the latest and best specialty foods, including beverages, and which each year attracts a large number of producers, buyers, brokers, distributors and industry professionals from the United States and the rest of the world. Italy, which historically has a large presence, both in terms of number of exhibitors and area occupied, will once again take the “lion’s share” with more than 300 companies exhibiting their products in the Italian Pavilion. The Ice Agency will be present with a collective of Italian companies representing the main sectors of the national agri-food industry, and thus from bakery to oil production, from preserves to pasta, to the confectionery sector. Italian excellence will be placed in the “Italian Pavilion”, under the hallmark of “The Extraordinary Italian Taste”. There will be no shortage of show cooking and wine tasting, organized by the companies that will see chefs and sommeliers at work celebrating the great Italian tradition. For Italian agribusiness, it was a record-breaking 2023 and celebrated with the record of product imports right in the U.S. ($7.35 billion). Data for the first two months of 2024 confirm the positive trend with double-digit growth for all the main items in the sector including oil, pasta, cheese, sauces, processed meats, and also affecting wine in the first three months of the year.
Producer of the event, is the Specialty Food Association (the largest food network in the U.S., founded in 1952 in New York, a nonprofit association with 3,000 members in the U.S. and abroad), along with Universal Marketing, Sfa’s exclusive agent for Italy and organizer of the Italy Pavilion. “The Summer Fancy Food Show is the premier product discovery and awareness event for the food and beverage industry, and this year places even more emphasis on new products and innovations in the food and beverage sector. We are thrilled that Italy is among the producers who will share their delicious, high-quality products with Show attendees”, said Bill Lynch, president Specialty Food Association. Erica di Giovancarlo, director of the Ice Agency in New York and coordinator of the U.S. network pointed out that “more than 300 Italian exhibitors will showcase all the products of excellence that we have come to know and love: from cheeses to extra virgin olive oils, from balsamic vinegars to pasta, from cured meats to desserts and much more. Italians are proud to produce their products sustainably with the utmost respect for the earth, our history, tradition and our planet”. Donato Cinelli, president Universal Marketing said that “the “Summer Fancy Food” has been for many years now, much more than an exhibition event dedicated to food and great gastronomy, it is a great showcase for the various countries that take part in it”.
And the Italian food model, a symbol of longevity that has spread from Italy to tables all over the world, starting from the U.S., will be at the center of the initiatives of Coldiretti, Campagna Amica and Filiera Italia, in collaboration with Ice: for the occasion, an exhibition-comparison between some of the most famous specialties of Made in Italy at the table will be set up, put together with the most blatant imitations uncovered by Coldiretti in American supermarkets, with the latest data on the phenomenon of Italian sounding in the States. On June 24, the appointment moves to the Farmers Market Grow Nyc in Union Square in New York, in the first day dedicated to the Mediterranean Diet in the US. In the Big Apple’s most famous farmers’ market, together with the Consortium of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana Dop and the Consortium of Grana Padano Dop, Coldiretti farmers will get to work involving New York families in a real open-air “School of the Mediterranean Diet”: preparation of homemade pasta with farmer cooks, buffalo mozzarella with historic cheesemaker Mimmo La Vecchia, as well as offering a tasting of typical products of the Mediterranean Diet. The analysis on “Americans to the test of the Mediterranean Diet” will also be disclosed on the occasion.