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Food & Drink

Food & drink news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

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Uber enters Turkey’s food delivery sector with $700m buyout

Uber Technologies will foray into Turkey’s food delivery sector as part of its expansion plans. The company has agreed to acquire an 85 percent stake in Alibaba-backed Trendyol Group’s Go online meal and grocery delivery business in Turkey for $700 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2025 following regulatory […]

Calo seeks to differentiate itself by using AI to offer customised meal subscriptions

Bahrain’s Calo acquires UK meal delivery brands

Calo, a Bahraini foodtech startup, is making its first foray outside of the Gulf by expanding into the UK. The company, which was founded in Bahrain but now has its headquarters in Saudi Arabia, is acquiring UK-based meal delivery brands Fresh Fitness Food and Detox Kitchen in the expansion. Caspar Rose, the former head of […]

KFC is one of the many fast food brands operated by Americana Restaurants in the Middle East

Americana reports growth in revenue and profit

Americana Restaurants reported a higher net income for the first quarter of 2025 compared with this time last year, as a consumer boycott targeted at the company’s brands related to the Gaza conflict eased. Net profit in the three months to March grew 16.5 percent in the quarter to $32.6 million, driven by higher revenue […]

The Jeddah factory, a joint venture between HPDC and BRF, will produce 40,000 tonnes of processed food a year

PIF food unit builds Jeddah factory with Brazilian partner

Halal Products Development Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and Brazilian food processor BRF have started constructing a processed-food factory in Jeddah. The factory is being developed by the joint venture BRF Arabia Holding Company at a cost of $160 million, BRF said in a statement. Established in 2023, the venture […]

People walk in front of the Pepsi Cola sign at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, Queens, New York City.

PepsiCo to open Saudi research centre for Arab tastes

PepsiCo has said it plans to open a research and development facility in Saudi Arabia focused on developing new products for Middle Eastern consumers. At a cost of SAR30 million ($8 million), the centre will be the largest of its kind in the Gulf region and located in Riyadh, the US company said as it […]

Women enjoy a meal in a restaurant in Riyadh. Full-service restaurants make up more than half the food service sector in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s expanding food sector faces high costs

As the population grows and the economy swells, the food and beverage service industry in Saudi Arabia is expanding. Half Million, a coffee shop chain that started in the capital Riyadh in 2018, now operates 59 stores across the kingdom. Its 60th recently opened on London’s Oxford Street. Barn’s, a Jeddah-based coffee chain that already […]

A Saudi farmer in a coffee plantation. Saudi chain Barn's launched in 1992 and operates 850 coffee shops in the Middle East, with 600 in the kingdom

Saudi coffee chain Barn’s plans IPO on Tadawul

Barn’s, a homegrown Saudi coffee chain, is planning an initial public offering (IPO) on the Tadawul stock exchange, with an aim to generate funds to finance Middle East expansion. It is working with Saudi regulator Capital Market Authority to meet the IPO criteria and appoint bankers for the potential offering, Bloomberg reported, citing CEO Mohammed […]

A Zapp delivery courier in London. The company is said to have started hiring in Dubai

UK company enters Dubai’s crowded rapid-delivery market

Despite the congestion – in the market and on the streets of the UAE’s most populous city – yet another competitor, UK company Zapp, is entering Dubai’s rapid-delivery market. This is evidence there is still room for growth, analysts say. Zapp focuses on rapid grocery deliveries from its own so-called dark stores. A dark store is […]

A sushi production line at Turkey's Kocaman Fisheries. The company exports to 30 countries and will soon be sending its sushi products to the Gulf region

Turkish fish processors adapt as taste for sushi grows

Turkish seafood processors are expanding their product range to cash in on new tastes, eating habits and markets, adding the Japanese delicacy sushi to their offerings. Not so long ago sushi was a rarity in Turkey. It featured on the menus of a few Japanese restaurants in tourist areas catering to foreign visitors rather than […]

Two men and a child eating dates. Many Muslims turn to dates to break their fast during Ramadan but prices in Turkey have risen

Supply restrictions send Turkey date prices soaring

Prices for dates in Turkey ahead of Ramadan pretty much always rise because that is when demand surges. The Turks are otherwise not big eaters of the dried fruit. But during Ramadan it is usually the first food muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere tend to eat to break the fast after a long […]

shisha restaurateur

Bring back smoking, say Jordan restaurateurs

Bring back smoking! That is how desperate restaurateurs and cafe owners feel in Jordan after a drop in tourism last year, linked primarily to the wars in the Middle East. Among other measures, restaurateurs want the return of the shisha, the waterpipe smoking device that is popular across the Arab world, and over which smokers can […]

Midtown Factory says its Arabian Ale uses a fermentation process that ensures it is alcohol free

Dubai company launches halal-brewed Arabian Ale

A Dubai company has launched an ale which has been certified as halal since it contains no alcohol throughout the entire brewing process.  Majlis Premium Arabian Ale, which is alcohol free, has been developed by a company called Midtown Factory, using many ingredients found in regular beer. Arabian Ale contains malted barley from Austria and […]

A food market in Egypt. Abu Auf sells healthy snacks, coffee and other foodstuffs in the country

Agthia’s stake in Egyptian snack group rises to 80%

Agthia Group, a UAE-headquartered food and beverage company, has acquired an additional 10 percent stake in Abu Auf, an Egyptian healthy snacks retailer, increasing its ownership to 80 percent. The Auf family will continue to lead the business, the company said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Financial terms of the deal […]

Restaurant costs: Dubai was named as one of the most expensive cities in the Middle East for expatriates in a survey last year

Dubai restaurants risk out-pricing customers on alcohol costs

The cost of eating out in Dubai’s restaurants is rising, especially if you’re washing your meal down with an alcoholic drink. Last year, Dubai was named the third-most expensive city in the world for a half-litre of draught beer at an average of $10.89, according to price comparison website Numbeo. Qatar was number one, followed […]

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Americana Restaurants profit rises as Gaza boycott eases 

Americana Restaurants, the largest food service business in the Middle East and North Africa, said profit rose in the fourth quarter as a consumer boycott that is related to the Gaza conflict eased. Net income in the three months to December 31 rose 26 percent to $41 million, compared with $32 million in the same […]

McDonald's enjoyed a rebound in sales in the final quarter of last year

McDonald’s sales rebound in Middle East as boycott impact fades

McDonald’s recorded sales growth in the Middle East in the fourth quarter of last year as the impact of boycotts tied to the Gaza war faded. This helped the US burger giant offset weaker performance elsewhere in the world. The fast food chain posted a 4.1 percent rise in Q4 sales in its international developmental […]