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Expo 2020 Dubai today launched a search for producers of authentic Emirati and regional products including dates, Arabian coffee and sweets, chocolate and spices, which will form part of a warm, mouth-watering welcome offered to Expo’s millions of visitors from around the world.
This is the second of up to 40 licensed product categories put out to tender by Expo following the launch last month of a campaign to find its manufacturers of souvenirs.
Licensed food products will be sold at selected outlets across the UAE, including dedicated Expo retail stores that are expected to open in 2018, as well as at the Expo 2020 Dubai site itself when its doors open in October 2020.
With the Dubai Food Festival kicking off later this week, Najeeb Al-Ali, Executive Director, Bureau Expo 2020 Dubai, hopes that UAE-based food producers will be inspired to compete for the chance to benefit from Expo’s reach, which will ensure that their products are tasted by millions from around the world.
“We want to work with producers to create a range of products that authentically reflect our heritage and the multinational diversity of the modern UAE. We have an incredible, vibrant food scene that combines traditional Arabian products like qahwa, dates and spices, with international influences, and we want to share that with visitors to Expo 2020 Dubai,” he said.
“Our ambition is for the Expo opportunity to support the development of home-grown food brands. I hope that UAE-based SMEs and food-producers will harness their creativity and innovation to serve up high quality traditional and home-made treats that will appeal to the millions who visit both before and during the World Expo. We hope there will be something to appeal to the taste buds of everyone.”
The tender process for becoming a licensed-food producer for Expo 2020 is fully online and open to businesses of any size from anywhere in the world. The initial stage – for companies to register their interest – closes on 9 March. A team from Expo 2020 Dubai will also be present at Gulf Foods, which starts on 26 February,
Anita Chandler, Director of Licensing and Merchandising at Expo 2020 Dubai, said that she relished working with licensees to develop innovative food concepts highlighting the skills of local producers
“I’m really looking forward to finding high quality products and distinctive flavours of the UAE and the region. We’re going to be welcoming millions of people from across the world in 2020, and I want them all to be able to take home something different, that leaves them with a lasting taste of the UAE,” she said.
“Maybe we’ll be selling them a special blend of Arabic coffee, or a unique chocolate flavour infused with spices from the region.”
To register their interest to produce Expo-branded food products, businesses should visit esource.expo2020dubai.ae
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