The Trade Promotion Section of the Embassy of Italy in Tokyo has organized the Italian Pavilion at Foodex Japan 2022. The number of exhibitors was approximately 50% higher than last year, with a total of 148 companies exhibiting in the largest international pavilion of this edition of the trade show. A special exhibition of 20 Italian cheeses has also been realized at the Punto Formaggi inside the Pavilion, in cooperation with Assolatte (Associazione Italiana Lattiero Casearia), with daily seminars focused on their characteristics and way of using them in cooking recipes, attended by a large number of visitors.
In the wake of last year’s success, after the end of the Foodex Japan, a session of online B2B meetings has been organized for Italian companies that are newcomers in the Japanese market. More than 100 meetings were held for two days (29-30 March).

Moreover, since 2019, the Trade Promotion Section, always in cooperation with Assolatte, has been developing a project to promote Italian cheeses in the Japanese market. So far, a variety of events have been organized, both for professionals and final consumers, including trade exhibitions, B2B, seminars, as well as Italian cheeses promotions on cooking and recipes websites etc.
The cooking seminar on Italian cheese at the Hattori Nutrition College (Yoyogi, Tokyo, on 13 June), with the Chef Ryuichi Hamasaki from the famous Italian restaurant in Tokyo "Ristorante Hamasaki” as lecturer, is one of the events of the project.
The workshop for culinary professionals focused on presenting the peculiarities and the versatility of Italian cheeses, suggesting cooking methods through the recipes realized by Chef Hamasaki during the cooking show.
Since cheese sales are expanding year by year within the Japanese market, the aim of events like this with top and renowned chefs is to further promote Italian cheese among professionals and to help maintain a steady growth in the long-term period.

Published: April 2023