New York returns to fill with flavors. From today, Sunday, June 28th, and until Tuesday 30th, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center hosts the Summer Fancy Food Show, the most important trade fair in North America’s specialized food industry. For the city it is a home appointment, the 70th, and every summer it transforms the pavilions of the Javits into a journey between tastes and cultures of the half world.
The numbers give the measure of the event. About eight thousand buyers expected, almost two thousand five hundred stands, over forty product categories and twenty-four international pavilions. Last year more than nine hundred new products were presented, and this year the fair confirms the place where the sector goes to find out what will come on the shelves in the following months. The slogan chosen for the edition, “Find Your Fancy”, sums up the spirit of a manifestation made of tastes, encounters and discoveries.
The Specialty Food Association, founded in New York in 1952, brings together producers, distributors and specialist food sellers. Among the protagonists behind the scenes there is also Universal Marketing, the reality that for years accompanies the Italian presence at the fair and that figure among the sponsors of this edition.
This year the event falls at a special time for the city, in the full World Cup of football, to the point that the organizers themselves prepared indications dedicated to travel during the tournament. A coincidence that, for the Italian community and for all fans, adds to the fair the atmosphere of a New York summer outside the municipality.
Among the trends at the center of the 2026 edition are wellness and a new attention to taste, with growing categories ranging from protein-rich snacks to drinks that mix sweet and spicy. Signals of a market that changes quickly and to which Italian companies, including, look to understand where the American palate is going.
At the inauguration, the institutional cut came from the Italian ambassador to the United States, Marco Peronaci, who moved attention from the stage to the benches. “The true ambassador of Italy here is food”, he said, recalling that the United States is the first non-European market growing for Italian products, with an export of almost four percent in the last year. Peronaci has linked this success to a recognition that Italy claims proudly: in 2025 Italian cuisine was entered in the list of the intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO. “I like the intangible word, which means untouchable”, he observed. “But this is the food that we touch and eat, it is where we all find ourselves together.”.
Bill Lynch, president of the Specialty Food Association, opened the 70th edition thanking Italy for a collaboration that, for him, lasts for twenty-six years. “Once again Italy has gone beyond this beautiful pavilion,” he said, greeting companies from different Italian regions, ready to let American buyers discover their products.
Among the institutions there was also the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests, Francesco Lollobrigida. In a margin press point, he underlined the strength of Italian companies in a complicated international context. “Our companies have always been strong, they are very good, and they have been able to resist a climate of instability,” he said, talking about a budget of export to the United States that remains positive despite the uncertainty linked to duties. On the link between the two countries was net: “The relationship between Italy and the United States is decisive. We are free countries, we have democracy as a foundation and common values, and this bond must remain indissoluble”.
On the stage the president of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, fixed presence at the fair. “It is a great opportunity for us to promote our region and our culture,” he said, claiming with a pinch of campanilism that “Piedmont is the region where Italy was born”.
To give a touch of color, and to remember the other great Italian passion, there was Christian Vieri, former national bomber, ambassador of exception in a summer marked by the World Cup to which Italy did not qualify. “Our participation in the World Cup is a bit virtual, but at least we have our champion,” said Ambassador Peronaci. presenting it.
For three days, in short, New York confirms itself as the world capital of food, and the Javits Center is the place where the stories of those who produce meet those who will take them to the American tables. A story that, even this year, speaks very Italian.
L’articolo Al Fancy Food in New York l’Italia è di casa proviene da IlNewyorkese.