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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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Food & Drink news

An olive harvester at work in Gafsa, Tunisia. Exports to the EU are expected to increase this year

North Africa to the rescue as Europe’s olive oil dries up

A caesar salad may be the ideal light meal on a summer’s day, but you might have noticed it is weighing heavier on your wallet. That is because the price of olive oil is at an all-time high. Prices have jumped by nearly 80 percent in just one year, according to data from YCharts.  European […]

Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri

Cop28 urges nations to put food at heart of climate action

The UAE has called on governments around the world to put food at the centre of their climate-change agendas. Speaking at the UN Food Systems Summit in Rome on Monday, Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, the UAE’s minister of climate change and the environment and Cop28 food systems lead, invited governments to sign the Leaders Declaration […]

Poultry Saudi Arabia

PIF unit buys $339m stake in Brazilian food processor

A subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invested in Brazilian food processor BRF as part of its drive to boost food security in the kingdom. Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (Salic) has acquired 180 million equity shares in BRF, representing 10.7 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, for SAR1.27 billion ($338.77 million). The […]

MMI's stores have reported double-digital sales growth since Dubai's alcohol tax cut

Dubai alcohol tax cut saving swallowed by most venues

Six months after Dubai suspended its 30 percent sales tax on alcohol, most hospitality venues have not passed on savings to consumers – but retailers have, driving up sales. Mike Glen, managing director at Maritime and Mercantile International (MMI), one of the main alcohol distributors in the emirate, estimates that only around 30 percent of […]

Chocolates, shop, Eid, Doha

Chocolate shops squeezed as cocoa bean prices hit 46-year high

While chocolate lovers the world over celebrated World Chocolate Day on Friday, retailers are watching the markets anxiously. Cocoa bean prices soared to a 46-year high last week in London and have continued to rise since. The surge in bean prices is due to ongoing supply shortages and is set to increase further, according to […]

Saudi's Almarai rolled out multiple new products in 2023 with plans to enter the seafood and frozen bakery business

Food sector dominates new factories approved in Saudi

Saudi Arabia approved licences for 53 new factories with total investment capital of more than $5 billion in April. The majority of new licences came from the food products industry, according to the latest monthly figures from the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, with nine new licenses approved. Other major sectors included non-metallic minerals […]

Person, Human, Bird

Brazil’s BRF share offer may drive new Saudi investment

Brazilian food processor BRF has filed for a follow-on share offering that will allow a previously announced investment by Saudi Arabia’s Salic in the company to materialise. BRF said in a securities filing it will initially sell 500 million new shares in a bid to raise money to reinforce its capital structure, particularly aiming to […]

Saudi catering firm signs $2.4bn deal with Red Sea Global

Saudi Airlines Catering Company (SACC) has signed two contracts worth SAR9 billion ($2.4 billion) with Red Sea Global, the developer of Red Sea and Amaala mega projects. The first contract, valued at SAR6.3 billion, is to design, build, operate and transfer a central production unit for catering and facilities management to service RSG hotels, resorts […]

Cell-grown meat Prince Khaled

Prince’s cell-grown meat investment gets US approval

Saudi Arabia’s “vegan prince” is set to get a prime cut of the profits from his investment in a startup producing meat made from cultivated animal cells. The US government this month approved the sale of Upside Foods products to American consumers. “Sometimes when you talk to an entrepreneur, you know,” Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed […]

Deliveroo's orders have dropped this year but business is holding strong in Kuwait and Qatar

Deliveroo riding the storm in Kuwait and Qatar

Kuwait and Qatar are predicted to continue to buck the trend as Deliveroo’s worldwide orders tumble. The online food delivery platform received 72.1 million orders worldwide in the first three months of this year, a drop of 9 percent over the same period last year, according to a statement from company headquarters in London. Earlier […]

InstaShop GroCart

UAE grocery delivery startup InstaShop buys GroCart

Grocery delivery app InstaShop is expanding into the wholesale sector with the acquisition of B2B operator GroCart. The move comes as a new survey said that a third of UAE consumers are planning to spend more on food in the next year. Founded in 2015 in Dubai, InstaShop operates in the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and […]

Nadec store

Agriculture major Nadec lines up $533m rights issue

Saudi food processing company National Agricultural Development Company – known as Nadec – has filed an application to regulators to increase its capital by SAR2 billion ($533 million) through a rights issue. Nadec’s application has been sent to the Capital Market Authority for approval, the company said in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange. […]

Ingrid Brodin, CEO and co-founder of Vindome, a wine trading app

Fine wine whets appetite of Gulf investors

A Methuselah-sized bottle of wine – six litres – was auctioned by Sotheby’s last December for a staggering $361,000. The sale of the 2007 Domaine de la Roman-Conti is an indication that investments of passion – art, cars, watches and wine – may not have been dented by the recent global economic worries. The region’s […]

A Golden Fields site. It has farms and processing facilities across the Baltic region

Abu Dhabi agribusiness links up with Estonian forage firm

An Abu Dhabi agribusiness has signed a supply agreement that will drive construction of forage processing facilities in the Baltic. Al Dahra Group has made the deal with Golden Fields, an Estonian animal feed company. Under the partnership, Al Dahra has an exclusive offtake agreement for forage – such as corn silage, grasses, alfalfa and […]

Adult, Female, Person, Gulf, Champagne

Champagne sales in the Gulf fizz by 91%

World Cup fans and wealthy expats led to Champagne imports to the Gulf almost doubling in 2022. After a strong marketing push by French producers helped luxury bubbly become more mainstream, the number of bottles of Champagne shipped to the region surged 91 percent last year. Comité Champagne, the industry body representing French producers, told […]

Beverage, Tea, Coffee

Dubai tea bag producer brews record results

DMCC Tea Centre has revealed production of tea bags at its Jebel Ali Free Zone facility was up 27 percent year on year in 2022. Saeed Al Suwaidi, director of agri-commodities at Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre (DMCC), described it as a “record-breaking” year and forecast further growth for 2023 driven by technology and automation. “We expect […]

Shoppers at a supermarket in Sanaa, Yemen. In the UAE, inflation in the cost of staples such as flour is slowing

Relief for online shoppers as food price inflation slows

The price of consumer staples bought online increased in 2022, but shoppers in the UAE are now beginning to see costs plateau. The most significant rise was in the price of tea, which increased by almost 26 percent year-on-year in Q1 2023, according to the UAE Ecommerce Consumer Price Index compiled by consultancy Pattern. The […]