It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Dubai’s biggest wholesaler Kibsons International is getting behind organic – there’s a swing to organic happening right across the Emirates, says Michael Wale.
Kibsons was founded in the 1980s, but it was not until five years ago that it started to major on organic produce. Director Halima Jumani explains: “ Organic products have long been associated with high prices. However, the organic movement is now gaining momentum and these products are slowly becoming more affordable to a wider spectrum of consumers, who can now have access to healthy food”.
Jumani was the prime mover behind a more recent extension of Kibson’s distribution and retail offer in the form of a home delivery ‘box scheme’. Customers pick from a wide range of organic food from the company’s website, or using its app. The delivery box is cardboard and customers are urged to return it with their next delivery, or just have it collected in the future. This is all part of the company’s sustainability policy, which also requires its fresh food growers to deliver their fruit and veg in anything but plastic.
This is because in Dubai you pay to have your rubbish taken away if you want it recycled – so the wider community itself has become much more aware of packaging issues, and increasingly rejects the use of plastic packaging in locally produced fresh veg and fruit.
I met with David Prokopiak, procurement development manager, who came to Dubai from South Africa, where he studied for a degree in agri-business. When he moved to the UAE he worked in a number of jobs before he realised he enjoyed the organic experience and subsequently decided to follow that interest to the production of organic food.
Helping local farmers
He worked with a Dubai based company Ripe, which now have three organic shops and stages weekly markets. Prokopiak recalls managing everything from helping local farmers – impressing on them not to grow cucumbers all at once, and overloading the market – to helping organise a large local market every Saturday. He worked there for two years before moving on to Kibsons.
He recalls that when he started at Kibsons the number of organic brands listed was limited. He feels that the UAE Government played a key role in supporting the development of organic by tightening up on organic certification and the local regulatory regime. He soon became involved with two of the largest organic farms which had opened to certify to EU organic standards, as well as the local equivalent.
The huge Al Rawafed organic farm just outside Abu Dhabi supplies Kibsons with most of the locally produced fresh fruit and vegetables demanded by its customers. The farm is run by the organic retail operator Mawasim, which has developed a strong partnership with Kibsons.
Al Rawafed grows everything from figs to bananas from herbs to tomatoes, and the inevitable cucumbers. The growers are led by a team from Europe. Prokopiak says that unlike other suppliers in the past Al Rawafed is able to be fully consistent in its supplies and responsive to changing consumer demand. Their packing is eco-friendly and their produce is of high quality, which builds trust in the brand. The farm delivers to Kibsons daily.
The other farm Kibsons sources regularly from includes the Emirate Biofarm, based on 250,000 square metres in Al Ain, in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Kibsons use this farm as a supplier of niche needs such as capsicums, carrots, leeks, sweet potatoes, chilli and moringa, as well as fresh eggs – with everything certified organic.
Changing organic consumer
A substantial part of the organic buying public is made up of UAE’s large expatriate population. But the Emirati (UAE nationals) are an increasing part of the organic consumer base, and as appetites grow for healthy eating options, including organic and free-from.
Kibsons feels that consumers are still very much price sensitive, and expect to pay premium for organic of up to 20% – but too much more.
“From the end of May until early November we have to import nearly everything because of the heat”
Prokopiak believes the market will continue to grow, with organic’s eco and health credentials appealing to wider audience. Market stimulation is being helped by the active involvement of the major supermarket retailers – the French-based group Carrefour, for example, even subsidises some local organic growers.
But there are limits to what can be grown locally, says Prokopiak. “From the end of May until early November we have to import nearly everything because of the heat. They cannot even keep the greenhouses cool enough yet, to continue production, although cucumbers can still be produced.”
That, he says creates, substantial opportunities for foreign exporters. Which makes the future prospects for organic in the UAE look like being a win-win for all involved.