Gulfood will also host the ninth World Cezve/Ibrik Championship, where the UAE’s undefeated Cezve/Ibrik coffee-making champion, Karthikeyan Ranjedran, will pin his hopes on a genetically-engineered Kenyan coffee bean as he seeks to ward off 20 international challengers and secure his adopted homeland’s first World Cezve/Ibrik Championship title.
Owned and organised by the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), Gulfood’s hosting of the competition, dedicated to the centuries-old art of brewing coffee in a ‘Cezve’ or ‘Ibrik’ - the small, long-handled pot – marks the contest’s Middle East debut.
Coffee trading is high on Gulfood’s agenda with Euromonitor International predicting the UAE’s coffee market alone will grow by over 30% in the next four years as Dubai emerges as a key supply cog in the global supply chain.
With domestic demand continuing an upward surge with over 4,000 tea and coffee houses now operating in the country and 82% of the population saying they consume coffee each day, according to the F&B online resource Zagat, the UAE is increasingly seen as both a growing consumer and re-export market for coffee beans and refined finished product.
Euromonitor says the country sits at the centre of a region which now accounts for eight per cent - or $6.5 billion - of the $85 billion global consumer spend on coffee. This could increase by up to a third by 2030.
Of the 70 coffee producing countries worldwide, major exporters Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Columbia, Ethiopia, India and Mexico will be present at Gulfood 2016, while buying delegations from the world’s largest traditional importers - the United States and Japan - will network with specialist coffee trading, roasting and packaging companies from emerging markets across the MENA region, South Asia and Africa.
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