HARBOUR Point, Victoria Island, venue of Fiesta of Flavours, West Africa’s biggest food and beverage fair, came alive on Friday, December 4 when Eventful Limited, foremost event planning company in Nigeria set a record of organising the biggest food and beverage fair in West Africa.

The opening ceremony of the fair had a panel session, which unmasked critical issues facing the agricultural sector of the country.  Discussing on the topic ‘is food the new oil’ panelists drawn from every section of the Nigerian agricultural food chain highlighted the numerous benefits that abound in the Nigerian agriculture and food processing industry and ways to tap the opportunities.

While speaking on the inspiration behind Fiesta of Flavours, Convener of the food and beverage fair and CEO Eventful Limited, Mrs. Yewande Zaccheaus, said the initiative is meant to explore the numerous untapped potentials in Nigerian agriculture and food processing sector, “Food is an essential part of our cultural heritage and identity. We ventured into this to drawing attention to the neglected of Nigerian agriculture industry,” she said.

Mrs. Zaccheaus also noted that eventful limited is supporting the entirety of the agriculture value chain, from food production to transportation, retailing and consumption by initiating conversations in the industry.

Food is the new oil, a well-developed agriculture and food processing industry has the capacity to providing jobs, increasing self and community reliance and fostering economic growth. We aim to be the driving force and partner of the first choice in facilitating this growth and building the future of the nation.

The first lady of Lagos State, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode commended the initiative “it is important that we start discussing about agriculture and food production in this country, the industry is indeed has a huge market, with a population of over One Hundred and Eighty million people, an event of this nature couldn’t have come at a better time”.

Speaking about the convener, the first lady said she is not surprised with this innovation because Mrs. Zaccheaus is, synonymous with first, “an amiable and distinctive entrepreneur with Midas touch. This is another first, and a new dimension the world of hospitality management” she said.

Chief Executive Officer, Culinary Academy, Chef Titan Alile said the event is a platform for stakeholders in the food and agriculture industry to discuss challenges facing the industry. “The agriculture and food industry in Nigeria has been neglected for the past fifty years, we can see the effect of this in the quality of produce we get and the fact that a lot of food and farm produce are now being imported from neighboring countries”.

We have celebrity chefs from South-Africa to present fine dining in the highest culinary level. Our Nigerian chefs are also here to present different food demos and to you the opportunities to compete in cooking competitions to showcase your culinary skills. In addition, we have lined up several pieces of training and seminars for food service professionals on the best practices in the industry as well as training on fine dining etiquettes,” she added