Market expansion
The Middle East is seen as a busy and booming market, and it’s no wonder that firms are looking to expand their reach.

UAE-based Al Ain Dairy is planning to use a new range of long life juices and an expanding portfolio of camel milk products to boost the company’s growth throughout the GCC market.
The company also unveiled new, ‘adult-focused’ long-life fruit juice flavours, including pomegranate, green cocktail, and lemon & mint.

Al Ain Dairy chief operating officer Shashi Kumar Menon said: “We are just stepping up our efforts into long-life products. We have always been a fresh produce company, and therefore focused a lot on the UAE. But now with more long-life products, we hope to be present across the whole market within one or two years.”

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The firm also unveiled plans to differentiate its product offerings from regional competitors, with one tactic to expand the company’s range of camel milk products, such as an upcoming camel milk ice cream.

“We have already had a lot of enquiries about these products, and camel milk is becoming more popular as a potential super-food. The challenge we face now is to create enough supply, because the demand is there and we just have to try to keep up with the production,” added Menon.

Al Ain Dairy has a range of camel milk ice cream coming out before the end of the year.
Expanding beyond the region seemed to be a theme. Sunbulah Group, which has its HQ in Jeddah, KSA, along with four factories, exports to 40 companies across the GCC, Levant region, North Africa, Canada, Malaysia, and Indonesia, but is looking to expand.

Its division manager – food services and frozen bakeries Nabil Najem said: “We launched the frozen bakeries section last year and now that we have worked on the launch we will start exports. We are only in Saudi Arabia at the moment, and are looking to export anywhere and find distributors as well.”

Sunbulah owns the Ashifa Honey brand, which is the only non frozen item in its portfolio. Najem added: “We want to go global into the honey business, and in the frozen business we would like market leadership in the GCC and North Africa.”

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