www.foodtechnology.co.nz 17
IF YOU hit the forbidding security
fences of the Al Udeid Air Base
southwest of Doha and home to
more than 11,000 American and allied
troops, you’ve come too far. Baking in
the 43 degree heat, the base looks like
something out of an apocalyptic teen
movie. Sand wisps around the ankles of
sentries stationed at its looming front
gates checking the array of visitors pouring
down Dykhan Highway, a 45-minute
drive from downtown Doha through
suburban communities, satellite worker
cities, vast tracts of industrial buildings
neatly colour-coordinated by genre, and
simmering desert that eventually leads
to the inhospitable border with Saudi
Arabia.
There’s nothing else I can do but encourage
my taxi driver to execute an urgent
u-turn, something he does with Qatari
finesse by tooting his horn and veering
wildly in front of huge trucks and buses.
The latter are filled to the brim with
young workers enticed from their lush
homelands in South East Asia, India and
Pakistan to work on the eye-wateringly
grand projects this peninsula poking into
the Persian Gulf is undertaking before its
ultimate showcase to the world during
the Football World Cup in 2022. I hold on
to my seatbelt and pray.
I’m here in this most alien of places to
visit a unique Qatarian food company
with a notable link to New Zealand. Gulf
Food Production Qatar – once smallfry
as a juice manufacturer supplying
internal markets – has seen its profile
explode in the past 12 months since the
country’s neighbours placed a surprise
blockade on imports and exports, air
and land access to one of the world’s
wealthiest countries. The move, which
the Qatari government and industry
leaders admit frightened them in the first
few days and weeks, effectively stopped
the movement of enough imported food
to feed its population of around two-anda
half million people.
In a reasonably non-descript building
guarded by high security gates in St No.9
in the grey zone of the new industrial
area, business development manager
Mohammad Ali Al Kuwari ushers me into
his office. Sitting serenely on his desk,
as if always waiting to be admired, are a
range of juices and drinks the company
produces for its countryfolk. Al Kuwari,
who studied international marketing at
Bond University in Australia, obviously
has a soft spot for the region…his smile
widens as he recalls the beautiful beaches
and laidback lifestyle of Australasia.
With his dishdashi (white robes) and agal
(headwear), he tells me proudly of his
company’s array of products over four
brands.
New to the stable – and the reason I
have coughed up 100 rials to visit this
arid neighbourhood – is the company’s
newly established cheese factory, fasttracked
with support from the government
since the blockade and using
Fonterra milk powder (amongst others)
to make cheese, cream and mozzarella.
Al Kuwari’s smile fades a little as he remembers
the action 12 months ago, and
describes the panic. “We had to shut
for a week,” he says. “It was a very big
problem. We still had money (supplies
and ingredients) in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.”
He shakes his head. “it was a very
worrying time for food manufacturers
and importers.”
Residents, initially spooked by the
thought of being effectively starved,
rushed to stock up on imported basics
like rice, frozen meat, bottled water and
milk. Social media jammed with lists of
local producers, and the Qatari Ministry
of Economy and Commerce ramped
up a campaign to promote Qatari-made
products at grocery stores, such as poultry,
dairy, baked goods and snack foods.
That’s a long 12 months ago, though –
and it seems that a lifetime has passed,
Al Kawari admits. Not only does the new
cheese factory have favourable government
financial support, it also incurs
cheap electricity and water. Al Kuwari
says it was built so fast, he couldn’t
believe the progress each week, and the
company went from five lines before the
blockade to more than 10 now. He employs
120 people – including top quality
food technologists around the world -
producing 27 products under four brands
- and hopes to increase that workforce to
325 overseeing 15 lines and more than
100 products in the medium term. He is
confident that his target of 240,000 litres
of juice and milk per day is sustainable.
You can tell the impact of that blockade
on a hot 2017 day still impacts on him by
the deepening lines between his brows
as he remembers. In regular meetings
with Qatar emir (leader) Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad Al Thani, who took over
leadership from his father in 2013 at the
age of 33, it was agreed that Gulf Food
Production would step up to make a
In a battle to feed its
people under siege by
a Middle Eastern blockade,
Qatar has surprised
itself – and the world –
by achieving a change
in philosophy over food
self-sustainability and a
groundswell of nationalism
by shoppers. NZ
FoodTechnology editor
Kathryn Calvert, in a
recent visit, found herself
desert-bound to check
out New Zealand’s input
into the great Arabian
food fight.
Business development manager
Mohammad Ali Al Kuwari.
/www.foodtechnology.co.nz
