When mentioning the Middle Eastern country, the United Arab Emirates, the first thing that comes to mind for many people is Dubai, a place where people are always yearning for life and money. However, in the global tea trade, the UAE is not only the country with the largest per capita tea consumption in the world, but the Middle Eastern country that does not produce tea is also one of the largest tea exporters in the world and one of the tea trade centers!
The United Arab Emirates is located at the intersection of three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe. It has been an important hub connecting major tea-producing countries and global markets since ancient times. Dubai Multi Commodity Trading Center Tea Center is in Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, the largest free trade zone in the Middle East. It is a professional equipment center integrating warehousing, blending, and packaging. Since its establishment in 2005, the Tea Center has established cooperative relationships with more than 200 tea manufacturers and importers around the world. Every year, about 40 million kilograms of tea are processed here and shipped to all parts of the world.
The important thing is that tea blending is not simply mixing several teas, but requires professional blenders to mix teas from different production areas and different flavors in a certain proportion to create a unique taste.
After the tea is blended, the factory will go into mass production. Data shows that the total export volume of tea from the UAE in 2020 is approximately 1.2 billion dirhams, or approximately 2.2 billion yuan, making it the world’s fifth largest tea exporter after China, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and India. At the same time, the United Arab Emirates is also the only country that does not grow tea.
The UAE’s imported tea mainly comes from India, accounting for about 30%. Followed by Sri Lanka, accounting for 20%. The remaining 50% comes from China, Pakistan, Kenya, and other countries. Except for a small part (approximately 4%) of the tea imported into the UAE for domestic consumption, most of the tea is re-exported. More than 30% of the products are mainly re-exported to Iran, followed by countries such as Iraq and Bangladesh.
In terms of tea consumption, in the past 10 years, the consumption of tea and coffee in Arab countries has increased more than three times. The per capita tea consumption in the UAE has now reached more than 8 kilograms, far exceeding any country in the world.
Currently, most of the tea imported into the UAE is black tea, with less than 1% being green tea. Judging from the packaging, one type is loose tea and the other is tea bags. Most of the re-exported products are loose tea, and a small part are tea bags. The price of loose tea on the market is basically one-fifth of the price of teabags.
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