Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre (DMCC) said it has broken ground on a new 7,500sqm coffee unit near Jebel Ali Port harbour in co-ordination with Chinese companies, Mega Capital Halal (MCH) and Yunnan State Farms Group.
The DMCC Coffee Centre, a temperature-controlled facility, will offer infrastructure and services for storage, processing, warehousing and delivery of coffee, to precise specifications, it stated.
Ahmed bin Sulayem, executive chairman of DMCC, said: “There are few things more satisfying than when a partnership of this scale with MCH and Yunnan State Farms comes to fruition, especially when it benefits our trading community here in Dubai as well as connecting right into Chinas ambitious trade programme and corridor, the new Belt and Road. The Coffee Centre also marks an important milestone for DMCC and Dubai, as once it is ready in 2018, we will be the first in the UAE with the capacity to handle up to 20,000 tonnes of green coffee beans at a value of up to $100mn annually.”
The UAE sits at the centre of a region which now accounts for 8% of the trade, or $6.5bn of the $85bn global consumer spend on coffee. According to Euromonitor International, this could increase by up to a third by 2030.
Matthew Pang, director of MCH, said: “Dubai is a key international gateway for trade as it connects the producing countries with the consumer as seamlessly as possible. DMCC comes with a strong track-record in enabling this process from infrastructure-build through to trade facilitation, and our partnership will no doubt bring a much-consumed commodity to Dubai and beyond.”