It’s a catch 22 situation that most restaurants serving unconventional fare in the UAE face. While restaurants grapple with a lack of suppliers for ethnic ingredients, the suppliers struggle to strike a balance between low demand and high costs.
Speaking to Caterer Middle East in a recent interview Maya Modern Mexican Kitchen and Lounge chef de cuisine Reuben Herrera said a limited pool of suppliers meant much of the produce had to be specially imported in and increased costs significantly.
“The habanero peppers have to be ordered in from Mexico. It’s not cheap for sure.”
JA Ocean View’s Brazilian restaurant, Fogo Vivo’s executive chef Alexander Fries agreed adding that “the UAE is still a very weak market.”
| Advertisement |
“Only five or six restaurants purchase these products and it makes it difficult for the suppliers to hold the stock so you always need to be on your toes,” he said.
However suppliers did in fact point to a lack of demand from restaurants themselves.
Speaking exclusively to Caterer, MH Enterprises, business development manager, Jyothis Nair said: “I don’t see many restaurants serving different cuisines here.
“They may be worried that business will be slow and the return on investment will be low so there is a lack of demand.”
Suppliers also have to deal with a high cost of importing ingredients owing to restrictions placed by the UAE municipality.
“In the UAE the municipality needs Arabic labelling for all the foodstuffs and the date should be in a certain format. In the USA they only have a barcode and there is no date printed on most of the products. The direct suppliers don’t want to deal with these issues and restrictions and they just give it to a third party that takes the products, dates them and sends them to us and that increases the cost for us,” added Nair.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
