Mauritius will participate for the first time at the international food expo, Gulfood, which will be held in the Dubai World Trade Centre from 21 to 25 February 2016 in Dubai. Six companies, including two SMEs will showcase various products such as special sugars, rough cut cane sugar, noodles, pasta, honey, tropical jam and fruit paste under the Mauritian Pavilion.
This forms part of Enterprise Mauritius' export diversification strategy in New and Emerging Markets in line with the Government's vision. In the last few years, Enterprise Mauritius has encouraged Mauritian exporters to look for new opportunities and ventures in New and Emerging Markets. Previous participations in World of Perishables for fresh produce in Dubai and Business to Business events held in Dubai, Bahrain as well as Turkey has shown promising export potential.
With the huge development taking place in the Gulf region, notably the World Expo 2020 and FIFA World Cup 2022 being hosted by Dubai and Qatar respectively, the time is opportune to position Mauritius as reliable sourcing destination for quality food products.
Preliminary desk research confirmed potential of seafood products, special sugars, seafood products and processed food to the UAE and other neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.
Gulfood is reckoned as one of the world's most important food and hospitality shows in the world. It is an ideal platform for Mauritian exporters seeking to penetrate the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia markets. Gulfood attracted some 4,800 exhibitors from 120 countries and some 84,642 visitors from 156 countries in 2015. All agro sectors are well represented namely: grocery products, fresh produce and dry foods, frozen foods, semi-processed food products and ingredients, seafood products, organic foods, meats, dairy products and spirits and beverages.
Exports of agro products
Exports of agro products to the Middle East stood at Rs 189 million in 2014 with Israel having the highest share of 29% followed by Saudi Arabia (21%), Oman (18%), the UAE (15%) and Egypt (11%). The main products exported were special sugars (40%), fish meal (14%), decaffeinated coffee (9%), processed tuna (6%) and other products like fresh fish, cake decorations, pineapples and litchis.
Domestic exports of agro products have been geared mainly to the European Market whereby the United Kingdom (22%), Italy (20.6%) and France (16%) were the top three exporting markets in 2014. However, total exports to the traditional markets have witnessed a slight decrease of 2% from 2013 to 2014.