Coffe Bar: Venues for Entertainment and Social Life

 
While coffee shops are now a worldwide growth phenomenon, they have proven especially popular in the Middle East, where they have become an important, and growing part of both the foodservice landscape and social life in general. International chains like Starbucks and Costa Coffee have expanded rapidly, yet face growing competition from local players like Egypt’s Cilantro or Saudi Arabia’sJoffrey’s Coffee and Tea. Michael Schaefer of Euromonitor International reports.
 
To some degree, this is nothing new; coffee has been consumed in the Middle East for centuries, and thriving coffeehouse cultures have long existed in the region. Yet there is no question that the modern coffee shop sector represents something new, providing a social outlet for women, students, and other young people in stark contrast to the maledominated traditional café sector. Far from a morning ritual, in much of the Middle East coffee drinking is done at night, with scorching daytime temperatures pushing eating out well into the evening. For international coffee chains, the growing importance of coffee shops to young people in the Middle East is a major opportunity, yet one which will require real adjustment to be fully realized. The expansion of the coffee sector in the Middle East is truly a region-wide phenomenon - Egypt and Saudi Arabia alone accounted for around €150 m in spending through modern coffee shops in 2009, while markets like Lebanon,Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are all witnessing booming expansion. Overall coffee consumption has moved steadily upwards as well – since 2004, volume sales of fresh coffee have grown by 20% in Egypt, more than 30% in Morocco and Saudi Arabia, and a remarkable 85% in the United Arab Emirates, indicating strong demand for both athomeand on-the-go coffee drinking opportunities.
 
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| 13 August 2010 |