Dubai/Cairo Dubai-based camel milk chocolate producer Al Nassma is currently holding talks with distributors in Egypt to expand its business footprint within the Middle East.
"The Egypt market is of considerable size for us and chocolate plays an outstanding role at many festivities, for example weddings," Martin van Almsick, Al Nassma's general manager, told Gulf News on the phone from the Salon du Chocolat, a four-day chocolate themed exhibition in Cairo, which has been held for the first time in the Middle East.
"As camel milk chocolate is seen as an authentic souvenir from the Arab World, Egypt is even more interesting for us due to its large tourism sector," van Almsick added.
Hatem Salem, organiser of the Salon du Chocolat, said that "thousands of visitors to the exhibition clearly reveal the relevance of chocolate for Egyptians, which gives hints for manufacturers on the slumbering economic potential of the Egyptian market."
Al Nassma, based in Umm Nahad on the outskirts of Dubai, is running a farm of 3,000 camels, together with a chocolate factory and a dairy and uses the animals' milk to produce a range of premium chocolate products, "a five-star chocolate", as van Almsick puts it.
In the UAE, Al Nassma has partnerships with Jumeirah Hotel Group, Kempinski, JW Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Dubai Duty Free and Etihad Airways.
The chocolate is exported to regional markets, of which Saudi Arabia is one of the most important, with an expected export share of 20 per cent during this summer's Ramadan. The chocolate is also shipped to the US, Europe and Japan.
Al Nassma is a joint venture of the Dubai Government and HM Chocolate Holding, based in Vienna and founded by entrepreneurial confectioner Hans Georg Hochleitner from Salzburg, Austria.
Austrian chocolate manufacturer Manner, a century-old family company in Vienna, holds 45 per cent of HM Chocolate's stake and is assisting Al Nassma in the production process.
Have you ever tried products made from camel's milk? Would you make the switch from cow's milk to camel's milk?
