The Middle East Food & Beverage And Cosmetic Market Is One Of The Largest And Most Profitable In The World

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) offers great potential for agri-food exporters. The UAE has become one of the top commercial and tourist destinations in the world, boosting demand within the country's foodservice sector. A large percentage of the agri-food and seafood products that are consumed in the UAE are imported, partly as a result of the climactic difficulties of producing crops in this region. Hotels, restaurants and institutional catering companies are all major players in the UAE foodservice sector, with restaurants serving as the primary purchasers of food and beverages imported by the UAE and a major target of fooddistributors and traders. In order to meet the demand of dynamic consumer groups, food and ingredients with a wide range of quality and prices are imported.

UAE will continue to be the essential commercial hub and tourist center of the Gulf and North Africa regions. 8.5 million visitors (Euromonitor International, 2008) from more than 200 countries arrived in the UAE. Restaurants in the UAE purchased over $841 million food and beverages in 2008 and are ex-pected to increase their purchases to $1.2 billion by 2012 (Datamonitor, 2008). Hotels purchased $239 million of food and beverages in 2008, and are expected to increase their purchases to $344 million by 2012 (Datamonitor, 2008). The institutional catering industry prepares 1.7 million meals per day to serve airline passengers and workers in the UAE (Datamonitor, 2008).

About Middle East Natural & Organic Product Expo 2011

Middle East Natural & Organic Product Expo – MENOPE is the one and only exhibition of its kind across the Middle East with exclusive focus on natural and organic products. The expo over the years has helped many global companies launch into the Middle East market. Indeed, MENOPE 2011 (December 5 – 7, 2011) is a not to be missed trade show, a proven platform to explore the Middle East market, the fastest growing for organic and natural products. MENOPE attracts serious trade buyers from across the region – from the Gulf countries as well as from the wider market of Middle East, African and Asian countries including India. The show is held every year in the cosmopolitan city-state of Dubai, the trade and re-export hub of the entire region.