Kosherfest, the annual popular two-day trade fair for the kosher-certified food industry held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, has announced that it is no longer holding the show.
Established in 1989, the show has included an exhibition hall, lectures, cooking demonstrations, a culinary competition between celebrity chefs, and new product awards.
“After extensive discussions with our consultant, bellwether exhibitors and very thorough analysis, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue Kosherfest,” the company announced. “Due to today’s changing supermarket category manager buying responsibilities and the elimination of the kosher buyer in many major supermarket chains, exhibitors feel Kosherfest has run its course and there is no longer significant ROI to justify exhibiting at the show.”
Within supermarket chains, the kosher food category increasingly falls under the grocery buyer’s responsibility, Kosherfest says. As this buyer is responsible for sourcing and purchasing a wide array of products, they are more likely to attend food events displaying items not just exclusive to kosher. “A certified kosher only food show such as Kosherfest is too niche for their attendance,” the company explains.
All exhibit space deposits received for this year’s show will be refunded within the next 2 – 3 weeks.
{Matzav.com}
This is terrible. Mamesh terrible. On the same level as Tisha biav. I don’t see any logical way Klal Yisroel can come out of this unscathed. This is troublesome beyond the comprehension of the average yid who keeps kasher.
NEBECH, I SYMPATHIZE WITH YOU
Your sarcasm, stupidity, and obnoxiousness is also beyond the comprehension of the average yid!
Too bad. If you don’t like it you can jump in the lake.
Wow, your anger level is scary, especially considering the silliness of its cause. Are you always like this?
~an average yid.
“A certified kosher only food show such as Kosherfest is too niche for their attendance,”
Oh please, who are you kidding? When the kosher market was a tiny fraction of what it was today, then it was worthwhile to attend a kosher only food show but now that the market of both kosher products and kosher consumers is much much larger they can’t be bothered anymore to attend a kosher only food show ONCE A YEAR. Seriously? Do they really expect anyone to believe this?
The real reason Kosherfest is a thing of the past is probably because it was being mismanaged and they are too embarrassed to admit it.
The parent company of Kosherfest “diversified communications” operates non-kosher food trade fairs, they probably just want to incorporate Kosherfest into one of their other food fairs. I’m sure kosherfest will rebrand itself as a “kosher section or pavilion” within their other non-kosher food trade fair. They see it as a win win situation, it gives the kosher manufacturers access to non-kosher supermarkets and it also gives kosher supermarket buyers access to products that happen to be kosher which are produced by large non-jewish companies who would otherwise never bother with a small kosherfest limited to the “only-kosher” market
I would not be surprised to see that.
It definitely would fit into the theme of the message they published.
I mean, could it possibly be that the CEO just wants to retire? Menachem has been doing this for 30+ years. There comes a point where one says, ad mosai.
I always wondered what the benefit this was to the companies and exhibitors in recent years. It was definiatly a great show for consumers – a huge kiddush! And great for the smaller and startup companies. But what benefit was there to the big established ones. Kosher food is a huge market out there and is not limited to the small percentage of frum yidden in NY/NJ.
Also, there are newer events & competition out there that are now expanding too: Kiddushfest, Kosher Food and Wine Experience.
There is a kosher food expo coming up in a couple weeks (https://jfood.show/) which seems to be a carbon copy of Kosherfest. Perhaps they pushed Kosherfest out of the market.
Its being discontinued because all the larger kosher vendors finally came to the realization that Kosherfest had been costing us thousands of dollars but none of us were making an extra time from it, it was a total waste of money and time and many of us stopped exhibiting over the last few years
Why was it necessary for certain comments to be derogatory? We are Yidden, remember? Try better to create a kiddush Hashem!
Okay, np