The food and beverage (F&B) sector is primed for growth in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi over the coming years, according to a new report released by JLL, a leading professional services firm that specialises in real estate and investment management.

 

The UAE’s F&B sector was impacted by measures designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, however, with restrictions in restaurants easing and hotels running at full capacity, the industry is now ready for rapid recovery, says the report.

 

JLL MENA Foodservice Consulting Lead Alexis Marcoux-Varvatsoulis, who released the report at the Arabian & African Hospitality Investment Conference (AHIC) in Dubai, said: “The recovery in the UAE’s F&B sector is predicated on a combination of factors, including higher levels of overseas visitors due to travel restrictions continuing to ease globally, through to improving consumer confidence among the resident population which has been helped by the success of the country’s vaccine roll-out.

 

“While we anticipate that demand for F&B will increase across the UAE, this does not necessarily mean that there will be a need for more restaurants to open, but rather for the existing ones to re-invent themselves and for some to re-locate to newly created residential or business areas to capture demand within those localities.”

 

The report highlights how JLL researched and categorised almost 45,000 food service units across eight cities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Europe. Of these, Dubai ranked highest in terms of the largest number of outlets per resident and the most variety in terms of categories and available cuisines.

 

Projections from Euromonitor, the global research and insights portal, also shows that the UAE’s consumer foodservice industry will largely reverse the contraction seen last year by posting strong growth over 2021-2023 – predicted to be around 26 per cent.

 

JLL’s report highlights that in the early part of this forecast period, the Expo 2020 Dubai is anticipated to provide a fillip to the emirate’s consumer foodservice activity as both tourism and business travel bounce back.-TradeArabia News Service