You may have heard that most business activities tend to slow down in the UAE during Ramadan as people work shorter hours. This statement is quite contradictory to my blog title, isn’t it! That’s because the food & beverage sector here behaves quite differently during Ramadan to other industries.
Food retailers typically expect a rise in sales of 10-15% during Ramadan. Consumer spending, particularly on food and beverage, tends to go up a few days before the start of the Holy Month until after the Eid celebrations have concluded.
Hotels still have room service and possibly one or two eating outlets open during the day in Ramadan during the hours of fasting. Though most restaurants and cafes are closed during the day, they do really well in the evenings, after sunset and the Iftar prayers; you may even have to wait for an hour or more to get a table at the popular restaurants. Hence, almost every restaurant extends their opening hours at night to cater for this demand.
Convenience stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets stay open during the day and have extended hours at night – sometimes till midnight or even later. They run several Ramadan specific promotions and launches during this period. UAE grocery sales are at their highest during Ramadan, with all food retailers stocking up on products at least a month in advance to meet demand.
Many food & drink products are sold at discounted prices, especially those popular in Ramadan such as concentrated juices, powdered beverages, dates, laban (fermented milk), Arabic sweets etc. Always worth a mention is that sales of Vimto sky rocket during the month. It’s fascinating to see rows and rows of Vimto bottles on the shelves here!
So contrary to what people believe, food & beverage sales shoot up during Ramadan as people tend to stock up for this month. I myself will soon be stocking up on tins of Nestle Cream for Ramadan, which is a staple food at my place for suhoor.
