MENA Food

MENA FOOD is a consultancy firm which specializes in supporting vendors, operators and restaurants to develop new or existing concepts within the MENA region and around the world.

MENA FOOD offers services from the very beginning such as feasibility, location analysis, concept creation, product development, distribution, branding, sourcing, project management and group purchasing. We ensure a fully successful finished concepts for food related ventures.

These elements can also provide solutions for existing operators to reach higher returns by revisiting their concepts and overall operational efficiencies and identifying areas to be developed to deliver a better connection with their markets while reducing costs and reaching a healthier bottom line.

MENA FOOD also provides asset and concept management to further ensure return on investment. The MENA Food market is likely to follow the population growth of the region. The higher percentage of young population makes the overall category outlook even more attractive. The driving factors for the industry are going to be Health, Taste, Nutrition, Convenience and Cost. Traditional Food Supply Chain systems will need to adapt to the said changes. Distribution systems need to support not only brick and mortar retail and food service outlets but will also learn to be “aggregators” for dark, cloud and virtual kitchens, the proliferation of which is happening at a reasonable speed.

Food Companies need to “Innovate” to provide localized thematic offerings with greater speed by making investments in food technologists, technology, labs, equipment and supply chain systems. However, the Food Industry does face challenges which are in the form of skilled technologists, cost disruption in key raw material ingredients, higher supply chain costs and lack of incentive to support R&D due to the relative ease of import substitution.

One key challenge facing the Food sector in MENA is to increase self-sufficiency and reduce the import bill of the region. The region remains highly dependent on imports and vulnerable to fluctuations in global food prices. The pandemic has proven to be a true catalyst event for the adoption of innovation in the food industry and that transformation will be to the benefit of all parties involved.