Coffee business brewing in UAE

Dubai - Domestic demand continues an upward surge with over 4,000 tea and coffee houses now operating in the country.

The UAE's coffee market is expected to grow by over 30 per cent in the next four years as the country's trading hub emerges as a key supply cog in the global coffee supply chain.
With domestic demand continuing an upward surge with over 4,000 tea and coffee houses now operating in the country and 82 per cent of the population saying they consume coffee each day, according to Zagat, the F&B online resource, the UAE is increasingly seen as both a growing consumer and re-export market for coffee beans and refined finished product.
Euromonitor International says the country sits at the centre of a region that now accounts for eight per cent, or $6.5 billion, of the $85 billion global consumer spend on coffee - and that this could increase by up to a third by 2030. In 2014, the UAE alone spent $121 million on coffee consumption.
The forecast comes as no surprise to Trixie LohMirmand, senior vice-president of exhibitions and events management at the Dubai World Trade Centre, which is witnessing huge space demand from suppliers, traders and roaster and finished product equipment manufacturers at Gulfood.
The 21st edition of the world's largest annual food and hospitality trade show runs February 21-25.
"Coffee is more than just a drink in the Middle East, it is an inherent part of the culture, a leisure pastime and business pre-requisite. Add to this the region's rising population and the UAE's anticipated hospitality boom in the run-up to Expo 2020 Dubai and the growth landscape is obvious," she said.
"Other shifting trade patterns are now also coming into the equation with new growers, such as Angola, gaining ground and revitalisation predicted for countries such as Yemen. A scenario for evolving trade development is emerging and we expect to see more signs of it at Gulfood 2016."
Of the 70 coffee-producing countries worldwide, major exporters Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Columbia, Ethiopia, India and Mexico will all be present at Gulfood 2016. In addition to buyer delegations from the world's two largest traditional importers - the United States and Japan - attending the show, Gulfood will welcome more than 200 specialist coffee manufacturing, trading, roasting and packaging companies from around the world.
Coffee though is only one commodity on the receiving end of a bright UAE outlook in the final years of this decade. Global macroeconomic research firm BMI International says the country's consumer outlook "remains bright" to 2019 even in an environment of lower oil prices.
- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com