PGI Welsh Lamb and PGI Welsh Beef’s 2023 export drive moves onto key marketplace Italy this week for the prestigious Tuttofood exhibition in Milan.

The trade show is a strategic target for Hybu Cig Cymru-Meat Promotion Wales (HCC)’s export experts because Italy continues to be a vital- and growing- buyer of Wales’ world-renowned premium lamb and beef brands.

“Tuttofood is the Italian marketplace that brings together top producers and distributors of quality products from across the nation’s entire food and beverage supply chain,” said Laura Pickup, HCC’s Head of Strategic Marketing and Connections. “It is a fast-growing platform that this year will connect over 1,200 brands from at least 35 Countries.”

Tuttofood offers the chance to build on a successful decade of HCC’s development activity in Italy.

“To build on these gains, our team will be meeting with importers, retailers and food service professionals and chefs who attend the exhibition in numbers,” said Ms Pickup.

The HCC team’s Italian visit extends work carried out earlier this year to boost export markets in the Middle East, the United States and Europe. The giant Gulfood exhibition- where 5,000 leading food and beverage companies showcased 100,000 new products from more than 125 countries- was followed by Sirha at Lyon, where 4,000 exhibitors and brands were present and then attendance at the ‘summit’ of the American meat industry – the Annual Meat Conference (AMC) – held this year in Dallas, Texas, where HCC and processors met with importers and distributors.

Such tactical activity has already helped to build on the notable post-pandemic increases in exports to the Gulf region and Europe, and to further foster the huge amount of interest in Welsh Lamb in North America, where Canada is a growing market and the first shipments to the US were recently made.