An international food industry business fair, “The Great Okinawa Trade Fair 2014,” took place for the first time at Okinawa Convention Center and Ginowan City Gymnasium, over the weekend of Nov. 27 and 28.

A total of 361 companies from Okinawa and abroad participated in the event. According to organizers, of those 86 local 114 companies from outside of the prefecture ran exhibition booths at the event, and about 1,900 cases of business negotiations were conducted over the two days.  The Prefectural Government, government-related organizations and many co-hosting companies from both in and outside of Okinawa sponsored the event.

At their exhibition booths, buyers and sellers were busy talking about their products.  JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization, had a corner to provide an opportunity for business meetings between local companies and invited buyers from nine countries as diverse as Thailand and France.

Local banks, Okinawa Bank, The Bank of the Ryukyus and Kaiho Bank also had stands in place to support the business meetings.  A person in charge of the stand of one of the banks said, “Okinawa has attracted the attention of Asian countries. We hope that local companies take advantage of this opportunity and develop the economy of Okinawa.”  A buyer from China said, “We saw a lot of interesting products. People explained their products carefully and we had good meetings that hopefully lead to good results. We are looking forward to next year.”

• 
• NO DATA