The UAE’s LuLu Group is investing US$400m in a food processing plant, a logistics and processing unit for fruit and vegetable produce, and a mega shopping mall in India’s state of Telangana.
This year’s Gulfood show takes place against the backdrop of rising regional investment in food production, with international manufacturers increasingly seeing the Middle East as a lucrative market for their goods.
Cargill has made its first investment in Saudi Arabia with the opening of a joint-venture corn milling facility to increase supplies to the Gulf’s food and beverage firms.
Beverage firms are hoping that 2018 will usher in a brighter dawn for alcohol sales in Turkey, after several tough years in the wake of sales clampdowns and a tough economic environment.
The humble flat bread, a regional staple, is among the things that have spurred the interest of a multibillion euro multinational ingredients maker in the Middle East.
Child malnutrition in East Ghouta, Syria, is at an all-time high as violence, the lack of humanitarian access and sky-rocketing food prices have put young children at the greatest risk.
Robotic technology that can grade meat products of varying weights and pack them swiftly into fixed-weight trays won a notable award at Gulfood Manufacturing this year.
