18-20 market UAEtsJPps:Layout 1 24/10/08 09:26 Page 18
MARKET: UAE
SPIRITS CONSUMPTION in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) grew
To bu y
by a bullish 17.2% last year, which
was the second steepest curve in
the world, according to data from
Euromonitor International. At the
core of the growth story is a
burgeoning class of Western
expatriates, including upwards of
into
120,000 UK nationals, who, like
21st century gold prospectors,
have flocked feverishly to the
region in search of their fortune.
Dubai is the hub of the activity,
with some 85% of its 1.6 million
inhabitants born abroad. This
Dubai?
cosmopolitan emirate has
marketed itself as the Western
capital of the Middle East and as
a beacon of high living. But is the
UAE really a land of opportunity, or
a potential capitalist casualty
of global financial contagion?
For spirits companies looking
to carve a bigger piece of the
action Euromonitor International
assesses the upside and
downside implications.
Tweaking Islamic law
For any spirits company eyeing
up opportunity in the UAE, a
potential deal breaker is that
Islamic law bans the purchase
and consumption of alcoholic
beverages by Muslims, which
account for roughly three-quarters
of the country’s 4.8m residents.
That would seem to leave a feeble
consumer base on which to
build any significant strategic
investment. The silver lining and,
in effect, the root of the
opportunity for international
spirits companies, is that
United Arab Emirates: land of
the government of the UAE
opportunity or a bubble about to burst?
perceives its Western expatriate
By Rob Walker, of Euromonitor
and non-Muslim tourism
enclaves as critical engines of
economic prosperity.
As a result, it has set up
opportunistic provisos to the
alcohol ban in key emirates,
whereby non-Muslims can apply
18
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