Over the course of four days, the Hospitality Services organized the 26th edition of Horeca Lebanon having for theme “For a better industry” and hosting more than 18,000 attendees and 350 exhibitors from different countries including members of Berytech, incubated startups from the Agrytech Accelerator Batch 2, members of QOOT the Lebanese agri-food innovation Cluster and innovative producers in the same sector.
Horeca 2019 for a better industry
Atayeb Al Jabal, Cubex, Digimart, Foodcheck, IOTree, Mushtic, Quadra and Rigino were the incubated startups from the Agrytech Accelerator Batch 2, conducted in partnership with Sanad Entrepreneurship Academy, who took part in the exhibition within the Berytech booth to present their respective solutions to the HoReCa sector. QOOT – Lebanon’s first agri-food innovation cluster, had an important presence too. Exhibitors from the cluster included : Colonel Beer, Eshmoon, Go Baladi, Gout Blanc, the Good Thymes, Hum’n Go, Unipak and Zejd.
Also, and for the second year in a row, Hospitality Services insured the presence of emerging innovative companies at Horeca securing their exhibition space. This year the pavilion included three innovative companies: Kaaju, L’Atelier du Miel and Royal Nest Microgreens.
Panels: Annual Hospitality Forum
During the Annual Hospitality forum, Berytech organized two panels related to innovation in the agri-food sector.
Ramy Boujawdeh, Deputy General Manager at Berytech moderated the panel entitled ‘On-demand Services Reshaping F&B’. The panel explored the flurry of new digital services in the F&B industry, how technology is transforming the food delivery scene, as well as the broader technologies and trends that are impacting the sector.
The panel hosted a mixture of different players in this landscape to discuss future opportunities and threats from their own business perspectives, composed of Angela Sawan, co-founder of Green-Junkie, Bechara Haddad, Country Manager at Zomato, Daniel Kofdrali, founder of Onlivery and Dany Haber, General Manager at King Food / Burger King Lebanon.
The second panel answered the question ‘Can Lebanese Agro-Food Processors meet the innovation Demands of HoReCa?’
It discussed how the agro-food industry is addressing the demand of new products and services from the HoReCa sector, and how innovations from Lebanon are meeting those requests as the sector is always in demand of new products and ingredients. This sector needs to serve the interest of their clientele and their dietary needs by creating new concepts and following new trends. The panel tackled how the Lebanese agro-food industry is meeting these trends and what could be done in order to better serve the sector.
The panel included Salim Makhoul, Head of Crown Flour Mills, Jamil Haddad, Founder of Colonel Beer, Soha Nasser, Business Excellence Manager at Tanmia Holdings, Anthony Rehayel, Founder of NoGarlicNoOnions, and moderated by Rani Azzi, Vice President of QOOT, Lebanon Agri-Food Innovation Cluster and Vineyard Manager at Chateau Kefraya.
The annual meeting for the hospitality and foodservice industries HORECA 2019 took place at Beirut Seaside Arena from the 2nd of April till the 5th.