FABEX 2026

FABEX is a specialized trade show focused on commercial food, ready-made meals and restaurants. Ready-made meal manufacturers handling prepared dishes, bento and cooked foods, product developers at restaurant chains, institutional meal and delivery businesses, and the wholesalers and manufacturers supplying ingredients gather there to look for materials for their next menus and staple products. It is organized by Nihon Shokuryo Shimbun at Tokyo Big Sight and held concurrently at the same venue with shows such as the Dessert, Sweets & Bakery Show and the Rice Future Show. This article covers dates, venue, eligible exhibitors and visitor registration, along with how to prepare so that commercial buyers remember you, and ideas for the samples and novelties to hand out in negotiations.

Basic information on FABEX

The next Tokyo show is the 30th FABEX 2027, held in April 2027. The 29th edition, held in April 2026, has already ended, so if you are considering visiting or exhibiting from now on, the April 2027 show is the one to target. Both are held at Tokyo Big Sight and are positioned as business shows for industry professionals.

Item	29th (ended)	30th (next)
Dates	Wednesday, April 15 – Friday, April 17, 2026	April 13 (Tue) - 15 (Thu), 2027
Time	10:00〜17:00	10:00〜17:00
Venue	Tokyo Big Sight, East Halls	Tokyo Big Sight
Admission	Industry professionals only / free with advance visitor registration	5,000 yen (tax included) *Free with an invitation ticket or advance visitor registration
Organizer	Nihon Shokuryo Shimbun	Nihon Shokuryo Shimbun

The 30th FABEX 2027 is expected to have about 650 exhibitors and around 60,000 visitors. It is a business-oriented trade show open only to industry professionals, and entry is free if you bring an invitation ticket or register as a visitor in advance on the official website. Same-day registration without pre-registration costs 5,000 yen (tax included), so registering as soon as you decide to attend also saves time at reception.

What companies and products does it attract?

Commercial food categories eligible for exhibiting

FABEX brings together ingredients and supplies specialized for commercial use. A wide range of items supporting restaurant and ready-made meal operations is on display: cooked and frozen foods for prepared dishes and bento, dashi, sauces and seasonings, commercial dried goods and dried vegetables, confectionery and baking ingredients, and kitchen equipment and packaging materials. The strength of a specialized show is that you can compare commercial ingredients, which are hard to handle in small quantities, together with discussions of mass production and specifications.

Fresh vegetables and fruit tend to pose challenges in preparation labor and yield, whereas ingredients already pre-processed by drying, cutting, powdering or freezing slot easily into kitchen operations. In commercial operations that want to maintain consistent quality without adding labor, interest in these ready-to-use ingredients is high, and at the venue negotiations proceed while checking actual rehydration methods and formulations.

Commercial buyers with real demand who attend

Visitors are mainly product developers at restaurant chains, hotels and institutional meal services, developers at ready-made meal manufacturers producing prepared foods and bento, and staff at trading companies and manufacturers that wholesale ingredients. All of them come looking specifically for ingredients they can use in their next menu or alternative ingredients that reduce cost and labor, so being ready to confirm price, minimum lot and supply stability on the spot moves negotiations forward.

Buyers with real demand look not only at the taste of a single item but at whether flavor and quality can be reproduced in large-scale cooking and whether it can be purchased stably year-round. Even if a tasting makes a good impression, the product won't be adopted if supply volume or lot sizes don't fit, so being ready at your booth to make proposals while finding out what size of store or factory will use it and how keeps you from wasting limited negotiation time.

Concurrent specialized shows

FABEX is not held on its own but concurrently with several specialized shows at Tokyo Big Sight. At the 30th FABEX 2027, the Dessert, Sweets & Bakery Show (with Cafe & Drink Expo), the Rice Future Show, Food & Beverage OEM Expo, the Premium Food Show, ProWine Tokyo, and ISM Japan / Anuga Select Japan are held during the same period. From prepared foods to desserts, beverages and OEM partners, the lineup lets you cover everything needed for commercial product planning in a single visit.

The fact that Food & Beverage OEM Expo runs concurrently makes this a convenient combination for developers who want to move seamlessly from finding ingredients to finding contract manufacturers. Right after finding an ingredient you like, you can visit companies that can discuss small-lot prototypes and contract manufacturing, shortening the run-up from planning to prototyping within the venue.

Highlights for visitors and exhibitors

Checking ingredients through tastings and demonstrations

In commercial negotiations, ingredients you have actually tasted lead more directly to adoption decisions than verbal explanations. There are many tastings and cooking demonstrations at the venue, so you can check taste, texture and rehydration with your own palate while imagining them in your own menu. Developers who ask on the spot whether an ingredient of interest can be incorporated in a given quantity and process, and who take home samples, can move more easily to reproduction tests back at the company.

Tips on cost and labor-saving in one place

In commercial operations facing ongoing labor shortages and high costs, ingredients that reduce preparation and ingredients with high yield are in demand. The venue is lined with ingredients that take over processing steps, such as pre-cut, pre-dried and pre-seasoned products, so you can compare how much kitchen work each can save. For visitors looking for substitutes that lower the cost of existing menu items, being able to compare proposals from several companies at once is an efficient way to gather information.

Keeping up with industry trends at seminars

During the show, seminars cover market trends in ready-made meals and restaurants and angles for menu development. You can quickly grasp consumer food trends and changes in the raw material sourcing environment, which helps set the direction for your next product plan. Popular topics sometimes fill up, so reserve the seminars you want to attend in advance.

For companies considering exhibiting

Eligible exhibitors include manufacturers and wholesalers handling commercial ingredients, seasonings, supplies and equipment, as well as growing regions and processors wanting to propose ingredients to ready-made meal and restaurant businesses. Booth specifications and exhibition costs can be confirmed with the organizer, Nihon Shokuryo Shimbun, or through the contact point on the official website. Since visitors are developers with real demand, being prepared to answer not only about taste but also about minimum lots, unit prices and supply systems determines the success of negotiations.

Preparing a one-page sheet summarizing price, lot, lead time and allergen labeling, along with samples that can be tried on the spot, lets you move straight into aligning terms at the booth. If the samples visitors take home keep well and are easy to reproduce, they become a way for buyers to remember your company during in-house tests later. Showing that you can handle small-lot consultations premised on prototyping also helps first-time customers feel at ease.

Visitor registration and how to participate

Attendance requires advance visitor registration on the official website. Once registered, you receive entry badge data and can avoid congestion at reception on the day. Entry is also free if you bring an invitation ticket, and same-day registration without pre-registration costs 5,000 yen (tax included). FABEX is a business show open only to industry professionals, so having your business cards and company information on hand makes things smoother. The standard routes to Tokyo Big Sight are Kokusai-tenjijo Station on the Rinkai Line or Tokyo Big Sight Station on the Yurikamome. If you plan to attend for several days from far away, book accommodation early, as nearby hotels tend to fill up quickly.

Tips for product development in ready-made meals and restaurants

In commercial menu development, ingredients that reduce preparation labor while delivering consistent quality year-round are easier to work with. Vegetables whose quality fluctuates by season and origin when fresh can be rehydrated in just the amount needed once dried or powdered, which also lightens inventory management. Agriture processes dried vegetables, vegetable powders and dried vegetable soups, and you can consult us from the raw material selection stage on designing rehydratable formats suited to kitchen processes.

Developers' reactions at the show become material for your next ingredient. If you take home requests such as "cut these vegetables finer," "shorten the rehydration time" or "adjust the soup's salt content for commercial use," produce small-lot prototypes and then go into the next meeting, you can shorten the distance to adoption. Efforts to make use of off-spec vegetables as dried products can also attract developers' interest from the standpoint of both cost and food loss.

Dried vegetable samples that don't get buried in a pile of brochures, rehydrated and tested in the buyer's kitchen

During FABEX, developers visit dozens of booths in a single day and take home more brochures than they can carry. By the time they get back to the office, it is not unusual for them to be unable to remember which brochure was for which ingredient. To be remembered at a show of this scale, a bag that won't get buried in a bag full of papers works well: small-bag samples of dried vegetables that can be rehydrated with water or hot water and tried straight away in the kitchen. If the bag you handed over becomes their prototype ingredient, it goes into the pot before anyone opens the pile of brochures.

A bag that stays in the hands of visitors who toured dozens of booths

Developers at major chains and hotels screen candidates in limited time. Even if a tasting makes a good impression, too many brochures to take home means it gets buried when they review later. Small bags of dried vegetables, vegetable powders and dried vegetable soups are light and compact, and if you hand them over with your business card and a menu proposal, buyers will pick them up back at the office, recalling that this was a rehydratable ingredient. Handing over the ingredient itself rather than a finished tasting product makes it easier for them to picture it in their own operations.

Letting buyers check reproducibility in large-scale cooking in their own kitchens

Whether a large chain adopts a product depends not only on taste but on whether it delivers the same quality in large-scale cooking. If buyers rehydrate the small bags they took home in their kitchens, they can check rehydration time, texture and finished color within their actual cooking processes. Agriture can prepare dried vegetables, vegetable powders and dried vegetable soups in small lots (from 50 bags), and the specifications of the distributed samples can carry straight over into prototypes. By readjusting cut size or soup salt content based on kitchen feedback, it becomes easier to move adoption talks forward concretely, even with first-time customers.

FAQ: FABEX

Is there an admission fee?

Entry is free if you bring an invitation ticket or register as a visitor in advance on the official website. Same-day registration without pre-registration costs 5,000 yen (tax included). It is a business show open only to industry professionals, so completing pre-registration once you decide to attend makes reception smoother.

When is the next Tokyo show?

The 30th FABEX 2027 will be held April 13 (Tue) - 15 (Thu), 2027, at Tokyo Big Sight. The 29th edition in April 2026 has already ended, so if you plan to attend from now on, the April 2027 show is the one to target.

What kinds of visitors attend?

Visitors are mainly product developers at restaurant chains, hotels and institutional meal services, developers at ready-made meal manufacturers producing prepared foods and bento, and staff at wholesalers and trading companies handling ingredients. They come looking specifically for commercial ingredients they can use in their next menu or staple products.

Are there concurrent shows?

The Dessert, Sweets & Bakery Show (with Cafe & Drink Expo), the Rice Future Show, Food & Beverage OEM Expo, the Premium Food Show, ProWine Tokyo, ISM Japan / Anuga Select Japan and others are held concurrently at the same venue. You can look for ingredients and contract manufacturers together in a single visit.

What is best for commercial negotiation samples?

Small bags of dried vegetables, vegetable powders and dried vegetable soups that can be taken home and tried straight away in the kitchen are ideal. Taste and texture can be checked simply by rehydrating with water or hot water, and they can be used as-is in developers' in-house prototypes, which makes them more likely to lead to consideration for regular adoption.

Summary: turning FABEX into regular commercial adoption

FABEX is a business-oriented specialized trade show focused on commercial food, ready-made meals and restaurants. The next edition, the 30th FABEX 2027, will be held April 13 (Tue) - 15 (Thu), 2027, at Tokyo Big Sight, and its appeal is the scale of about 650 exhibitors you can visit in one trip. You can check ingredients through tastings and demonstrations, look for ways to cut costs and labor, and even find contract manufacturers at the concurrent OEM show. For visitors touring this many booths to remember your company, having a bag they can rehydrate and test in their kitchen makes your booth memorable. Starting by handing over small-bag dried vegetable samples together with menu proposals, you can build a path toward adoption in large-scale cooking.

Official information: FABEX official website

Official information: FABEX official website

Recommended reading

Commercial dried vegetables / Original vegetable novelties / FABEX Tokyo / FABEX Chubu 2026

Last updated: August 12, 2026