Global companies eye growing Mideast food market
2011-02-28 18:29:49
With food prices skyrocketing worldwide, the chat at the four-day Gulfood exhibition and congress in Dubai was not only about tastes and flavors but also about the economics of basic food ingredients and meals and drinks.
Inaugurated on Sunday by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, United Arab Emirates (UAE) finance minister and Dubai deputy ruler, 3,800 companies from more than 100 countries or regions, a 10 percent increase compared to 2009, demonstrate their food products and innovations to process meals and filling up bottles. As usual at Dubai trade fairs, dozens of firms are from China.
The six Gulf Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman, which form the political and economic union Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), are an important region for the global industry as they import 90 percent of their food. With the population of 40 million people doubling every 20 years, the potential is obvious.
"U.S. exports of food and agriculture to the GCC have grown from 800 million U.S. dollars to over 2.34 billion dollars in 2010, " said Jude Akhidenor, regional director of the agricultural trade office of the U.S. Consulate in Dubai.
For Chinese firms, the GCC is a natural trade partner as the bloc delivers 55 percent of China's oil needs. Both sides aim to reach a free-trade agreement within the next years.
"For any firm demanding Chinese food products, www.21food.com is the premier marketplace," Anya Zhang, who is from the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, told Xinhua. 21food.com accommodates worldwide food buyers and suppliers to matching their needs as an e-business marketplace and Chinese food suppliers directory.
"Singing up is free and you can build up your own products showroom," Zhang said.
But the market is less than easy. "Every food product must have a halal certificate to enter the market," said Fawad Ahmadi, managing director of Dubai-based food trading firm Multipower Sportsfood.
"Halal means that there is no pork in the meals and no alcohol as the religion of Islam forbids both," said Ahmadi, whose company imports fitness drinks and cereals from Germany's northern port city of Hamburg.
Not importing but increasing exports is the vision of Pakistan' s basmati rice producer Matco, owned and run by the Ghori family.
"Last year we exported 75,000 tons of rice, this year we want to increase this amount to 100,000 tons," said Khalid Ghori, director of production and procurement.
Despite the tragic flood catastrophe which hit Pakistan last year during summer, the rice fields have not been affected "as rice can survive under water, while corn and wheat cannot," he said.
Prices for corn and wheat have risen 88 percent and 74 percent respectively. "These increases hurt everybody, the producers and the consumers," Multipower Sportsfood's Ahmadi said.
Economists expect that only a quick solution in Libya, where opposition groups have been demonstrating to oust the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi, can ease the oil price rally which fuels the food price surge, as all sorts of food have to be transported.