True, we cannot – yet? – speak of a boom in organic food in Saudi Arabia. Especially compared to some countries in Europe as well as the United States, where people’s concerns about their health and the environment have led to a steady growth of the organic sector, awareness in the Kingdom is lagging. The greasy shawarma – basically strips of fat alternated with pieces of meat – and oh-so-delicious but equally high-calorie fast-food burger are still the norm here, it seems, not to speak about the soaring energy consumption wastage due to inefficient buildings, infrastructure, and carelessness. However, the Kingdom is not insusceptible to trends in other parts of the world. Welfare is growing rapidly – as are obesity levels – and people start looking for wholesome food. Organic sections, often packed together with diet foods on supermarket shelves, are popping up. Is this movement also visible in the Kingdom’s restaurant scene? And what can we expect in the near future?
Edwin Reyes is the flagship branch manager of an organic pizza chain in Jeddah. According to him, there is a “huge demand for organic pizzas.” The word organic is spreading in the Kingdom and the rest of the world, and everyone is now familiar with “wellness”, a term closely related to organic food, the manager of the American franchise thinks.
He even says demand is accelerating: “We established our first restaurant in Saudi Arabia in 2010, and now have seven branches in Jeddah and one in Riyadh. We are opening a branch in Alkhobar in a few months.”
When new customers come to his outlet, they often want to hear an explanation about organic food. “Saudis would try our restaurant anyway, because it is new. When they hear the word organic, they get curious and turn into regular customers,” Reyes explains.
Mohammed Al-Tabshi does not agree with Reyes. The head of operations of a food chain serving Lebanese cuisine and with a gourmet store attached thinks there is no organic awareness at all until now. He says his restaurant, which opened its doors in the Kingdom in 2005 and now has two branches in Jeddah, embraced the organic concept in the early 1990s, but they reduced the line of organic items in Saudi Arabia, because “no one cares if it’s organic or not. Only some Westerners are curious.”
While the business is growing rapidly, this is not because they use some organic items. “We sometimes changed products from organic to non-organic, and no one even asked about it.”
What Saudis do care more about now is health, according to Al-Tabshi. “Customers are health-oriented, not organic-oriented.” In other words, they want less fat, less carbs, and fresh products without additives or conservatives, something his restaurant offers.
Reyes also admits that most costumers who come to his pizza place are health-oriented, rather than being focused on organic food as such. That could explain why the chain is growing faster in Jeddah than Riyadh. “In Jeddah, there is more awareness about health,” he says.
And when asked about his main competitors, Reyes mentions other pizza chains, not organic competitors. This could indicate that, as Al-Tabshi claims, people mainly come for the kind of meals they serve, and less for the fact that they use organic ingredients, just like Al-Tabshi points to other Lebanese restaurants as his main competitors.
On the other hand, one cannot state that the organic concept is nonexistent in Saudi Arabia. Approximately one year ago, the Saudi Organic Farming Association (SOFA) created an organic food label, similar to the USDA organic seal in the United States, to make it easier for customers to identify Saudi organic products. The Ministry of Agriculture, understanding the advantages organic agriculture offers on the conservation of water and fuel, is also ambitious. It strives to increase the share of organic farms to 5 percent of its agricultural sector in 2017. Seemingly, the will on the hand of the authorities, is there. The punch line, as is often the case, appears to be education and awareness-building among the population. Reyes, the organic pizza chain branch manager, coincides, and his company’s marketing strategy focuses on spreading the organic concept. “We want to make people aware of what they are eating, whether they buy from us or not.” He underlines the importance of awareness, which will also serve his business by increasing the demand for organic food.
Al-Tabshi thinks it is not the role of the food and beverage industry to build consciousness. He would rather see the Ministry of Education spread the message. “If my restaurant sees that awareness is growing, we would include more organic items,” he states.
In other words, organic food still has a long way to go and up to now, we cannot affirm it will be the “next big thing”, but at least a modest begin has been made. Perhaps the looming water and oil-deprived future would eventually trigger an organic boom in the desert-dry country.
Are organic restaurants the ‘next big thing’ in KSA?
