This year’s event Festival attracted around 131 display booths of hotels, restaurants, Banh mi stores, and businesses providing ingredients, spices, and equipment for bread-making technology, especially top Vietnamese oldest and most famous bread brands.
Chairwoman of the HCMC Tourism Association Nguyen Thi Khanh said that Banh mi, a Vietnamese sandwich, has been admitted into the Oxford English Dictionary on March 24, 2011. The admittance contributed to promoting Banh mi to foreign tourists and attracting them to come to Vietnam to enjoy a unique experience of local food.
The festival featured a wide range of activities such as a seminar on "Vietnamese Bread in World Tourism and Cuisine" with a journey of development affirming Vietnamese culinary culture; setting a record for 150 dishes served with bread, an introduction of bread made of rice flour and cereals combined with Vietnamese agricultural products, a startup program to offer 25 bread-selling carts to disadvantaged women in HCMC, Tay Ninh, Vinh Long, Hau Giang and Long An provinces, and a volunteer program to present bread to children in difficult circumstances.
