Winter Fancy Food Show 2027 is now Winter FancyFaire: how a food exporter should prepare

What changed

The Specialty Food Association, which runs the show, announced in January 2025 that the Winter Fancy Food Show would end after its 2025 edition and be replaced by a new January show called Winter FancyFaire. The first one was held in San Diego in January 2026. The Summer Fancy Food Show in New York is not affected.

Winter FancyFaire 2027 runs from 17 to 19 January 2027 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The organiser lists the exhibit halls as open from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday 17 and Monday 18 January, and from 10 am to 3 pm on Tuesday 19 January, with buyer badges admitted from 9:30 am. It is a trade show, not a public one. Check the dates, hours and registration rules on specialtyfood.com before you book travel; everything in this paragraph was read there in October 2026.

Who you meet there

The organiser describes it as the first industry event of the year, with new specialty products in more than forty categories. Its show page says more than 1,000 exhibitors and more than 4,000 buyer attendees, without saying which year those figures are from, and shows logos of retailers and grocers among the companies that attend.

For an exporter, that means two different groups in one building. The buyers walk the floor looking for products: retail and grocery buyers, and the people who supply them. The exhibitors are the companies showing products. If you are not exhibiting yourself and the organiser publishes the exhibitor list before the show, that list is the part you can plan around. Read it for companies that import or distribute products like yours, not for brands that compete with you.

Four to six weeks before

Decide who you want to meet, by name. Twenty well-chosen companies you have read about will give you more than three days of walking every aisle. For each one, write one line on why you fit: what they carry, what they are missing, which of their customers would buy what you make.

Write before you fly. A short note saying you will be at the show, why you think there is a fit, and asking for fifteen minutes at their stand or a coffee nearby. Most will not answer. The ones who do are your best meetings, and the ones who do not will at least recognise your name on the follow-up.

Prepare what you will be asked for. A one-page spec sheet per product, your certifications, your shelf life, your minimum order and how you ship to the United States. Have them ready to send the same week, not the month after.

Check your email arrives. A note in a spam folder looks exactly like a note that was ignored. Our guide on why buyer emails go to spam covers the three records to check.

During the show

Write on the back of every card that evening: what they asked, what you promised, and one detail that will remind them who you are. In two weeks you will not remember.

Keep the price for the follow-up. If somebody asks what it costs on the floor, a considered answer by email the next week is better than a number guessed in the aisle.

After the show

The follow-up is where a trade show pays for itself or does not. Send what you promised in the first few days, then one short, personal note to everybody else, then one or two more over the following weeks, each with something new to say. Our trade show follow-up guide has the week-by-week plan and three short notes you can adapt.

The short version

The Winter Fancy Food Show is now Winter FancyFaire, 17 to 19 January 2027, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Pick twenty companies from the exhibitor list before you go, write to them first, write on every card the same evening, and follow up within the week.

Next: How to follow up with buyers after a food trade show