Farsons Brewery this year exhibited its premium range of award winning beers at Sial China, Asia’s largest food and beverage exhibition, held in Shanghai. Featuring almost 3,000 exhibitors from 67 countries and regions, the annual exhibition attracts over 70,000 visitors over a 3-day period and is an important showcase for major food and beverage players from around the globe.

Chief business development officer Michael Farrugia said that “this year we wanted to take the opportunity to launch and showcase our new range of premium beers and packages, following our significant investment in a new beer packaging facility”.

Farsons has had a presence in China since 2010 and, while this was not the first time that the brewery had participated in the exhibition, Farsons substantially scaled up its presence this year to launch its revamped international portfolio.

“China is today the world’s largest beer market, which has seen remarkable growth over this past decade, within both the domestic and imported beer segment. This presents us with an opportunity to tap into a niche of the beer import market as consumer demand for quality imported beers continues to rise,” said head of international business Stephen Sultana,.

Following its participation at Sial China, which was supported by Trade Malta and Malta Enterprise, Farsons has further strengthened its sales network in China, particularly in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. A market test is underway with one of China’s established national beer importers and if successful, the plan is to roll out the company’s flagship brand Cisk to a number of national retail chains during the next 12 months.