{"id":76983,"date":"2026-01-22T10:50:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T06:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/?p=76983"},"modified":"2026-01-22T10:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T06:50:05","slug":"italy-takes-centre-stage-at-gulfood-2026-with-its-culinary-diversity-and-sustainable-food-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/italy-takes-centre-stage-at-gulfood-2026-with-its-culinary-diversity-and-sustainable-food-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy Takes Centre Stage At Gulfood 2026 With Its Culinary Diversity And Sustainable Food Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) <\/strong>in partnership with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs<\/strong> will participate in Gulfood 2026, January 26\u201330,<\/strong> the 31st edition of the world\u2019s largest food and beverage trade show.<\/strong> Spanning two venues this year, the Dubai World Trade Centre<\/strong> and the Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City Dubai<\/strong>, the event mirrors the expanding scale and evolution of the global food industry.\u00a0 Twenty-two companies will exhibit within the Italian Food Lab, alongside 311 Italian exhibitors as part of the Italian Pavilion<\/strong>, reinforcing Italy\u2019s strong and diversified presence at Gulfood 2026.<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s participation is underpinned by the recent recognition of Italian cuisine by UNESCO<\/strong>, which inscribed Italian culinary traditions, formally titled Italian cooking between sustainability and biocultural diversity<\/em>, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. As the first national cuisine worldwide<\/strong> to receive this status, Italian cooking is formally recognised as a living cultural system rooted in tradition. Its foundations lie in agricultural landscapes, biodiversity, seasonal produce and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge, elevating Italy\u2019s food heritage on a global cultural stage.<\/p>\n

Building on this recognition, Italy\u2019s presence at Gulfood 2026 will focus on communicating the cultural, agricultural and sustainable foundations of Made in Italy food. At the centre of this participation will be the Italian Food Lab<\/strong>, a dedicated experiential space hosting live cooking demonstrations and gastronomic masterclasses throughout the duration of the exhibition. Led by Italian chefs based in the UAE<\/a> and internationally, the programme will showcase regional diversity, raw material excellence and production practices rooted in sustainability and tradition.<\/p>\n

In the first eleven months of 2025, Italy exported \u20ac416.9 mln <\/strong>in food and beverage products to the UAE, alongside a total export value of \u20ac447 million in 2024<\/strong>. These figures reflect a stable and competitive market<\/strong>, where Italy\u2019s positioning is driven less by rapid volume growth and more by the enduring value of quality, heritage and authenticity.<\/p>\n

As of October 2025, Italy\u2019s best-performing food and beverage export categories to the UAE were beverages (\u20ac76.5 million<\/strong>), cereal, flour and starch-based preparations (\u20ac55.8 million<\/strong>), and dairy products (\u20ac32 million<\/strong>), underlining sustained demand for core Italian categories across retail, hospitality and foodservice sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cItalian cuisine goes beyond taste, reflecting a strong bond between people, tradition, and sustainability\u201d, said H.E. Lorenzo Fanara<\/strong>, Ambassador of Italy to the United Arab Emirates.\u00a0 \u201cGulfood is a key platform to share this heritage, recognized by UNESCO as\u00a0Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, with partners and consumers across the UAE\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Valerio Soldani<\/strong>, Italian Trade Commissioner to the UAE and Oman, added: \u201cItaly\u2019s food and beverage exports to the UAE reflect a mature and discerning market. With \u20ac416.9 mln exported in the first eleven months of 2025 and strong performance across beverages, cereals and dairy, the focus today is not on scale alone, but on reinforcing the value proposition behind Made in Italy food. Gulfood 2026 allows us to translate this value into experience, through the Italian Food Lab, masterclasses and direct engagement, showcasing the cultural depth, diversity and sustainability that now carry formal recognition at the highest international level.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Visitors to Gulfood 2026 are invited to experience the Italian Food Lab and its programme of masterclasses taking place throughout the exhibition days, offering an authentic insight into Italy\u2019s extraordinary food and agricultural heritage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) in partnership with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will participate in Gulfood 2026, January 26\u201330, the 31st edition of the world\u2019s largest food and beverage trade show. Spanning two venues this year, the Dubai World Trade Centre and the Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City Dubai, the event mirrors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76985,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76983\/revisions\/76985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}