FOCUS: Japanese food enjoying boom in UAE

DUBAI, June 8 Kyodo -
Japanese companies are capitalizing on the growing popularity of Japanese food
such as high-quality fruit and beef in Dubai, the most populous of the
economically dynamic United Arab Emirates.
Although Dubai's economy has been slowing due to the global recession, there
are good prospects for its further development as a Middle Eastern business
hub.
''Very tender and delicious,'' said an Arab restaurant manager after eating
Japanese-produced beef at the Japan pavilion at a food exhibition held in Dubai
in late February.
A conference hosted simultaneously in Dubai by the Japan External Trade
Organization for Japanese producers, and local restaurant owners and food
importers was also lively.
Kuniyasu Funaki, JETRO's chief executive officer in charge of Dubai and MENA,
said with a smile, ''I feel as if I have struck gold with new business
opportunities.''
There are about 70 authentic Japanese restaurants in Dubai and one-third of
them have opened in the last two years. ''Now is the time to sell Japanese food
materials,'' said Rabih Zeineddine, sales executive of Fresh Express, a food
importer who attended a tasting party after the conference.
Foreigners account for 80 percent of the UAE's population. In the last five
years, the nation's gross domestic product has doubled and food imports have
also increased.
In 2007, the UAE's imports of agricultural and marine products, and food from
Japan increased 11.5 percent from the year before.
Japanese dishes are being targeted not only at rich Arabs but also Japanese
residents of the UAE, who number about 3,000, the largest community in the
Middle East, as well as European and American residents and tourists who favor
Japanese dishes as healthy.
The Japanese government has been stepping up efforts to export agricultural and
marine products, and food in recent years, and such exports totaled around 430
billion yen last year. The export target is now 1 trillion yen.
Hiroyasu Kobayashi, Japan's consul general in Dubai, said, ''The status of
Dubai as a logistics hub will not be diminished so easily.'' But there are
concerns, including a drastic drop in the number of guests at high-grade
hotels.
Takashi Suzuki, an official of major frozen food company Katokichi Co., who
attended the JETRO conference, said, ''There was a debate about Dubai during
in-house meetings, but now it's time to plant seeds. We'll be tackling this
problem in the long term.''
Japanese food suppliers face a number of problems including Islamic dietary
laws. A sample of high-grade ''Sagagyu'' beef brought to Dubai last fall was
not halal.
Another problem concerns pricing. The price of a high-quality apple that sells
for 300 yen in Japan soars to about 3,000 yen once air transport costs are
included.
''In the current economic climate, nobody is buying high-priced things,'' said
a hotel official.
Yoji Shiraki, general manager of the Overseas Business Division in the Tokyo
office of De-Mer Co., a marine product processing company based in Hachinohe,
Aomori Prefecture, which brought dried fish to the food exhibition in February,
said, ''We would like to develop popular products for Arab people.''
==Kyodo