New York City, June 30 – The fifth edition of The New Amsterdam Affair (NAA) was celebrated exuberantly on the roof of Gary’s Loft in Manhattan on Saturday. This annual event enables Dutch brands to pitch their products to more than 500 American retailers, foodies and design lovers. The future is looking bright for the ‘host brands’, Boska, Beemster and Tony’s Chocolonely, as specialty food is the fastest-growing segment in United States food industry today.
“American consumers see cheese as a premium food and the same applies for chocolate, beer, wine, meat and fish.” says Martijn Bos, CEO of Boska Cheesewares and Chocowares and promoter of The New Amsterdam Affair. “With the US economy improving, Americans are showing a growing preference for specialty and premium foods. This is a situation that we can benefit from too, because of the increased interest in the special tools and accessories we produce for cheese - and for chocolate too recently”.
Timing
The New Amsterdam Affair has been timed to coincide with the 64th edition of the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York, an event organized by the Specialty Food Association (SFA). This non-profit organization has more than 3,500 members, including artisan producers, importers, buyers and entrepreneurs. This year, the show will include more than 2,600 exhibitors from 54 countries, presenting a total of more than 200,000 specialty foods. “We deliberately chose to hold The New Amsterdam Affair now. With so many foodies in the city, it's just too good an opportunity to miss,” Bos laughs.
Relationships
“For Tony’s Chocolonely, the NAA is the ideal way to meet key accounts in an informal and fun setting. It helps us to develop and strengthen relationships with them”, says Dena White, US Marketing Manager at Tony’s Chocolonely. This Dutch chocolate brand recently launched two new, 100% slave-free chocolate flavors in the American market: Milk Chocolate Hazelnut and Dark Milk Chocolate Pretzel Toffee.
Beemster has been the event's exclusive cheese partner since it started back in 2014. Mary Caldwell, who is responsible for marketing in the US explains: “The growth achieved by this annual event proves the increasing success of Dutch brands in the US and also the supportive and cooperative nature of the Dutch-American community.”
Chocowares
Boska - a Dutch brand that has been the standard for cheese tools for professional and home use since 1896 - is taking the opportunity to introduce the US to its “Chocowares”. The company's love of other food categories has led it to explore other areas too. Bos explains: “We want to bring people together and guarantee them the very best good food experience by making sure they have the tools they need. We started out 120 years’ ago with a passion for cheese. Along the way, we fell in love with chocolate too, which is why we decided to develop our new collection: Chocowares.” The official launch campaign for Chocowares will follow at a later date.
Boska celebrates fifth edition New Amsterdam Affair
