We have just come back from a dinner given to us by Pino, our coffee supplier (www.caffemoak.com) at HOFEX. We went to an Italian restaurant and enjoyed a most Italian dinner chosen by Pino. We were accompanied by his colleague who works out of Shanghai helping him with marketing the product in China.

 

This morning we started with Gingseng products from Korea. We did speak with two Korean parties, who explained about red gingseng and its nutritional value. It would be interesting to see how we are able to convice the folks back home to add gingseng to our product portfolio.

 

In addition, we also had a serious discussion with an Italian energy drink company who was ready to give us one of the best offers in the exhibition. But then later we came across a German energy drink producer who gave us a still better deal; not only that – he had a larger variety including stimulation "love" drink which the owners promised will be a hit.

 

Later in the day, we also came across a very intereting premium Italian wine range; Marco and Giovanni. Then we also took an interest in Australian frozen eggs and Belgian pasta among other things. I feel we will have a good addition to our General Store product portfolio.

 

Hussain from Yatch Tours sent me an sms to say that he was in the exhibition with Gaboa. But we never got to meet with them. And very interestingly we met the guy who was supplying to Sea Gull from Australia.

 

Almost everyone we approached seemed to supply something to a Maldivian party including Fragata olives from Belgium, who have been in Maldives for over ten years with STO. I took a business card and a catalogue from him for Shaheer.

 

Interesting joke from Pino: "Fifty years ago you had to remove a x’s … to see … but today you had to open a x’s … to see the …"

 

Mohamed Shihab | Smile and Let Smile