GCC food retailing estimated to cross AED 560 billion by 2018
According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report the food retailing market in the GCC is estimated to be worth more than AED 560 billion by 2018. Scanty food production, because of limited water resources and climatic conditions, make GCC countries primarily dependent on imports for its food requirements. 80% of food products in the GCC are imported. Cereals account for more than a half of the region's total imports. Imported foods are locally processed for consumption and re-exports.
Ibrahim Mohamed Aljanahi, Deputy CEO of Jafza and Chief Commercial Officer of Economic Zones World, the parent company of the Free Zone, commenting on Jafza participation in the Gulfood said:
"Rapidly growing population and high GDP per capita will continue to drive growth in the import driven food and beverage markets in the region. With growing focus on local food processing the food processing industry in the region is set for high growth. This provides huge opportunities for not only multinationals dealing in variety of food products including Halal food but also for dealers in food processing machinery, packaging and logistics. Jafza participation in Gulfood seeks to highlight its sector focused diverse offerings including its new Halal Zones initiative and attract new companies to setup their regional hub at the Free Zone."
Jafza is currently home to over 460 top multinationals in the F&B sector such as Unilever, Heinz, Kraft, P&G, PepsiCo, and Gulf Food Industries among others. These companies serve the wider Middle East region comprising South and West Asia, Africa and the CIS, a market with more than 2 billion people, from their Jafza base.
The Free Zone, last year, rolled out an initiative to develop two state-of-the-art Halal Zones, one in Jafza , to serve international markets; and another, at its sister company TechnoPark, to serve the local and regional markets.
Jafza plans to develop Halal Zones as all-inclusive hubs, supported with world-class physical, administrative and legal infrastructure to attract leading enterprises in the entire gamut of halal industry. Halal Zones will integrate a one-stop-shop system to service each and every need of customers in the halal supply chain, offering ease of doing business.
With 5,000 exhibitors from 120 countries and over 85,000 expected industry visitors from 170 countries, Gulfood 15 is the largest industry event in the region for Food and Beverage industry.
