The North Dakota Trade Office (NDTO ) will be partnering with the North Dakota Department of Agriculture and the Northern Crops Institute (NCI) to host the 2014 China-North Dakota ‘Better for You Food Ingredients’ Conference & Exhibition. This event will give North Dakota value-added food producers the opportunity to demonstrate their high-quality products to Chinese buyers, food producers and research and development specialists. The event will take place in Qingdao, China on March 20-21 and will be led by North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring.
The China-North Dakota ‘Better for You Food Ingredients’ Conference & Exhibit initiative is two-fold, focusing on education and sales. NCI, along with certified food scientist Dr. Sam Chang, will lead the educational programming portion of the event and will present to an audience of Chinese buyers, food producers and R&D specialists on the many benefits of North Dakota products including: flax; peas, lentils and dry edible beans; sunflowers; canola; barley; wheat, flour and pasta; soybeans.
In addition to educational presentations, Chinese chefs will be preparing traditional Chinese dishes while adding North Dakota products, to demonstrate possible uses of these value-added crops.
The other portion of the ‘Better for You Food Ingredients’ event will be an adjoining Exhibition which will run concurrent with the Conference. North Dakota organizations and companies will have the opportunity to exhibit their products to Chinese buyers, producers and R&D specialists, in a table-top exhibit setting. The exhibit area will allow for one-on-one meetings and sales conversations.
The China-North Dakota ‘Better for You Food Ingredients’ Conference & Exhibition is part of the larger initiative to help North Dakota companies build strong relationships with China and fulfill the growing need for products in the Chinese market. In 2013, fourteen North Dakota companies and organizations participated in the conference and exhibition, which was held in Beijing and Guangzhou. Over 150 Chinese buyers, research and development specialists and food manufacturers attended the two events.
For more information about this event, contact Jiwon Kim at Jiwon@ndto.com or Lindsey Warner at Lindsey@ndto.com.