Food Products Exhibition Center celebrates first year with prizes

The Portuguese- Speaking Countries’ Food Products Exhibition Centre located at Tap Seac’s Glass House is celebrating its first year of operation (on March 31) by giving away prizes.

The Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), which manages the center that opened its doors on March 31 of last year, decided to promote the anniversary by giving away product baskets in an online and offline series of activities, IPIM informed in a statement.

The activities, which will be held until March 30, aim to share the personal stories behind the products on display in order to contribute to the promotion of the companies participating.
The online activity being held through the social network platform Facebook is a “Like and Share to earn a gourmet products basket” activity, in which people are invited to “like” the Facebook page of the Economic and Trade Co-operation and Human Resources Portal between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries and carry out a few additional steps in order to have the opportunity to participate in the lucky draw which will give away a prize of a basket of gourmet products, valued at MOP10,000.

The basket will contain several kinds of wines and food products, such as a 24-mounth cured Iberian Ham.

At the same time another series of activities is occurring “offline” in the center where visitors are invited to try and win products by guessing their Portuguese- speaking country of origin. This is envisaged to deliver a more interactive experience to the public.

As mentioned by IPIM, all the prizes exclusively contain products acquired from local suppliers that are partners of the center.

According to IPIM, since the portal entered into operation back in 2015, more than 13,000 users have registered and gathered information on over 10,000 food items promoted through it.

Figures provided to the Times by IPIM at the beginning of this month indicate that around 9,000 visitors (around 800 per month) and 38 groups have visited the facility. Although the center’s promoters claim that creating brand awareness is the main target, the center generated low direct sales during its first operational year. According to the figures reported earlier by the Times, only “12 companies have joined the promotion with the total revenue generated reaching [MOP]180,000.”

However, almost a year after opening, the center’s promoters made a positive assessment of it, informing that it has been displaying products from seven Portuguese-speaking countries and has held several related events.