Dubai F&B import clearance times trouble firms

Registration regulations for goods imported into Dubai have changed recently forcing F&B companies, among others, to rethink logistics.

Talking at Gulfood 2012, Ilham Benbrahim, manager of Eurodelices, which produces and exports to Dubai Milky Lux, a longlife yogurt, revealed: "We originally tried to export a short shelf-life product, but there are too many problems.

"Shipping and clearance times cause problems as you need to add two weeks' clearance time onto the shipping time. It's getting tougher and tougher here. A couple of months ago a new regulation came into place which meant you had to register your product before it got imported, and this added more time onto the process.

Benbrahim said that in Saudi Arabia clearance times could be up to three weeks.

"That's why we have created a product with a long shelf life."