Ironically now—in view of recent events—traffic in the still-developing Russian restaurant market jumped 7% in the fourth quarter compared with the prior year quarter, according to the latest global consumer CREST data from The NPD Group. In a remarkable change of fortune, visits in China during the quarter fell 4%, although surging menu price increases…

Shanghai was a very busy place for foodservice professionals earlier this month. The show, March 30-April 2, drew 81,596 E&S professionals from more than 130 countries to Hotelex Shanghai at the city’s New International Expo Centre. More than 1,600 exhibitors spread out across the show floor. “Foodservice in the 21st Century,” the show’s day-long educational…

The biggest foodservice show in Latin America, Fispal Food Service, more fully known as Feira International Tradeshow of Products and Services for the Out-of-Home Consumption, is set for June 24-27. The 30th edition of the event will take place at the Expo Center Norte in São Paulo. More than 60,000 visitors from Brazil as well…

The 19th edition of Food&HotelAsia2014, Asia’s largest biennial food and hospitality tradeshow, set a few records earlier this month. The April 8-11 show, the first to fully occupy the Singapore Expo, the country’s biggest exhibition venue, boasted 3,213 exhibitors—its largest number to date—and 63 group pavilions. Preliminary data has the show attracting 64,826 attendees, more…

The hallmarks of the six-day Internorga fair in Hamburg were trends, innovations, expert discussions and new business leads. Market leaders and small creative companies brought in a host of product innovations to the fully booked show, which featured presentations by more than 1,200 exhibitors from 27 nations. About 95,000 attendees were at the March show,…

Rational would like all of its customers to get the maximum benefit from their purchase right from the start and throughout the product’s service life. Customers who purchase a Rational cooking appliance will receive a free Rational ServicePlus package that they can use as long as they have a Rational appliance in their kitchen. The…

The new Blanco AirServe Trolley makes food delivery a reliable, multidimensional process whether an operator is making 50 or 5,000 meals a day. The compact hot-air regeneration cart gives operators varied flexibility when loading hot and cold meal portions. The interior thermal partition wall is set asymmetrically and can be positioned at different depths in…

According to Euromonitor International, business in the Middle East’s quick-service market could double to $400 million by 2017. With the UAE in the middle of a quick-service boom, regional chains—especially those based in Dubai—are ramping up for expansion outside of the Gulf region. Dubai-based quick-serve chain ChicKing Fried Chicken, which started business with just one…

Halton Group, the Finnish maker of hoods and ventilation systems, has established a new manufacturing facility in Brazil through a joint venture agreement with São Paulo-based Refrin. The agreement between the two family-owned companies was signed earlier this month. Refrin manufactures HVAC ductwork in a modern 60,000-sq.-ft. plant; a separate facility produces ventilation hoods and…

Middleby Middle East opened in Dubai, UAE, in February. The grand opening coincided with the Feb. 23-27 Gulfood Show in the Dubai World Trade Center. The American company’s new location serves the Middle East with technical support, design services and a test kitchen for customers while covering all three Middleby platforms: commercial foodservice, food processing…