Operations
Growth and challenges
La Marquise International’s in-house professional barista Armiel Alkuino tells Caterer Middle East that coffee quality awareness is growing very fast in the region, and attributes some of this to the International Coffee & Tea Festival, which has been held for the past eight years in Dubai.
“Today coffee shops and restaurants are willing to stand out by offering speciality coffee experiences. At the same time, consumers are becoming more aware of coffee quality and, therefore, becoming more demanding. Just couple of years ago consumers in the UAE tended to drink only dark roasted commercial coffees mixing it with some sugars and syrups but now you will see people drinking coffee in their different filter methods, including cold drip coffees, and consumers have their own favourite coffee origins,” he comments.
Coffee Planet managing director Rob Jones agrees that “coffee culture has increased significantly in the Middle East”, making it one of the fastest growing markets in the world for coffee consumption.
“We have observed first-hand how consumers’ knowledge and appreciation for good quality coffee is constantly improving. For example, last year more than 19,000 tonnes of coffee were sold in the UAE and according to Euromonitor, the region represents 8% or $6.5 billion, of the $85 billion spent on coffee globally — this number continues to increase,” he adds.
It’s not all smooth sailing, however, as Melitta Professional Coffee Solutions head of coffee — Horeca Division Alaster Siddle reveals.
“Currently the coffee market is a victim of the global political uncertainty with regards to pricing. The commodity prices for Arabica and Robusta are fluctuating hugely, and when combined with the US dollar exchange rate, some roasters are finding it hard to manage their cost base. This has resulted in some of the biggest branded coffee houses looking to increase their prices for drinks sold, in the region of $0.15 per drink,” he shares.
Coffee famers are facing difficulties and this will have a knock-on effect for operators in the future, as Mokha 1450 co-founder and managing director Garfield Kerr explains. “Within the global coffee market generally, warnings that coffee farmers continue to suffer have become more acute as the International Coffee Organization (ICO) recently reported what has been known all along that coffee farming is not a profitable enterprise. As a result, the next generation of potential coffee farmers are choosing different paths of employment in hopes of making a better living.”
Kerr adds: “This will force large buyers as well as small roasters to adjust their purchasing practices in the near and long-term as demand for coffee continues to rise and coffee supply continues a negative trend without potential of meeting those demands.”
Sharing his thoughts, Raw Coffee Company co-owner Matt Toogood says: “This growing season has seen some interesting results, in the form of higher prices and lower qualities in African coffees. Politics is having a big influence this year. However, the really good news is that because of high prices from the normally popular growing areas, we are seeing different and really interesting coffees that don’t normally make the speciality market. Myanmar for example, has just produced its first speciality crop with the assistance over the last four years from a USAID sponsored project.”
Growing quality awareness
In terms of quality awareness in the coffee sector, Siddle says changes in recent years have been driven by an increased understanding of taste profile rather than an awareness of quality: “Globally the coffee palate is broadening and this allows for more sophisticated coffee varieties to be sampled, enjoyed and developed. This consumer-led need to satisfy a broader taste has allowed previously under-valued robusta variants to become highly sought.”
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