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Gulf food: A growing pie

Chetan Suri

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<h2><span style="font-size:14px">UAE&#39;s food and beverage market forecast to remain healthy</span></h2> <p>Spending by residents on the food and beverage (F&amp;B) will increase over the next five years, mainly due to increase in consumer base and growth in the income, according to industry analysts.</p> <p>Analysts believe that the impact of the VAT will be limited but impact on juices and carbonated drinks within beverage industry could be felt a bit more.</p> <p>&quot;The food and beverage sector in the UAE will see a healthy growth supported by the growing consumer base, rising income and increasing average spending per individual over the next 5 years. The average consumption rate by an UAE resident is around 900kg of food annually while the average spends on eating out per person is estimated at Dh120,&quot; said MR Raghu, managing director of Marmore Mena Intelligence.</p> <p>The UAE food and beverage industry is expected to reach close to $13 billion (Dh47.7 billion) by 2018-end while the market size of Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) is expected to be over $4 billion (Dh14.7 billion) by 2018, according to Marmore estimates.</p> <p>Source:&nbsp;https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/local/gulf-food-a-growing-pie</p>