Can customers tolerate change in bid to go green?

The vegetable garden at Jebel Ali Golf Resort & Spa used to grow herbs.

At the recent Caterer Food & Business Forum Ian Ohan, owner/GCC area developer for NKD Pizza revealed that the company had shifted its focus to sourcing only local produce in a bid to lower its carbon footprint.

Ohan said that the volume of outlets in the UAE that were ordering their food produce from outside the country meant there was little effort being made into researching new ways to grow produce locally.

“The entire industry here has been resisting pioneering these new products,” said Ohan.

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As a result the company looked to developing its own local supply chain by partnering Green Heart Organic Farms in the UAE.

“We get the products we want and a variety product. We’re not an organic company we’re natural, but we changed our products in some cases to adapt to the growing season. It’s difficult to get cherry tomatoes in July but we can change that. I’m saving the cost of import because I send a truck each day to collect the goods, not an aircraft carrier, the yields are much lower and I can pass that onto our customer,” he said.

But while Uwe Michael, director of kitchens, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek and president, Emirates Culinary Guild believed it was great in theory, he didn’t believe it was possible in practice, especially for Dubai-based hotel F&B outlets.

“It all comes back to education. Can you imagine us telling our customers now we’re only going to get strawberries once or twice a year, mangos three times a year? Now we have these fruits 12 months a year and our market here won’t accept it any other way,” he said.

This raised an important point about whether the industry was more driven by money than morals.

Caterer approached some members of the F&B industry to hear their thoughts.

Subarna Thapa, F&B manager, Dusit Thani said: “How easy it is to be sustainable is always a controversial discussion. It’s not realistically possible to be 100% sustainable in Dubai. As an F&B business, it is important for us to consider the guests’ expectations. With regard to not using produce that is not available here in certain months – is the guest educated enough on sustainability to accept that?

“At the end of the day we are professionals running a business – we are responsible for delivering ROI to our owners, managers and selves. Our priority is making the money, then we think about social responsibility – if you are not making your budget, KPI then you can’t talk about these things,” he said.

While SCAFA Dubai tried to take advantage of what is seasonally available, chef instructor Francisco Araya, agreed that for the UAE it was unrealistic to expect to run a menu which only operated on produce that could be grown and sourced locally year-round.

“The UAE is not a natural producer. Its environment is a harsh desert climate that is not conducive for producing anywhere near enough food to sustain the populations that now resides in its cities. Besides it is too costly and impractical to grow enough own produce.”

But Sudqi Naddaf, executive chef at Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates disagreed, adding that it was important for chefs and outlets to demonstrate creativity using what was available locally.

“For me seasonality is really important. I try to apply this philosophy to my kitchen style as well. I am pushing my chefs to become responsible and use local and seasonable products as much as possible.”

Caterer recently visited the Jebel Ali Resort which focuses on growing its own herbs using natural waste to sustain the garden.

Executive chef Nicolas Smalberger explained that while this does not produce revolutionary amounts of new produce, it’s a start, adding that it was better to source ingredients that could be found locally, even if it meant growing your own.

“The cost of herbs in Dubai is extremely expensive; you pay through your ears for it, especially when you’re looking for things that you don’t find every day. Sometimes you have to wait two weeks or 10 days and by the time they come they are completely destroyed. [Growing them locally] really does save on the cost,” said Smalberger.

Ohan added that it was important “not to underestimate the intelligence of our consumer,” and was supported by Markus Thesleff founder of Okku who said a lot of his customers only came to the outlet “because we don’t sell the endangered bluefin tuna.”

“I agree with the education side, but I also agree that customers can tolerate those changes. We’ve taken the time to educate the customer that they are not going to have cherry tomatoes one month – they understand that,” concluded Ohan.