Exclusive: Fresh innovations continue with ISM Middle East’s second day

Visitors from around the world continued flock to Dubai to participate in the second day of ISM Middle East, as the show offered a dynamic showcase of products from the region and far further afield, writes Neill Barston.

With more than 600 exhibitors participating, the trade show’s halls held a sense of anticipation and buzz, reflecting the event’s growth over the past few years that has seen it double in size.

Notably, one of the most colourful sights greeting show visitors this year was a debut for parent show ISM Cologne’s mascot, Gismo the flamingo, flew in to lend some star character quality to proceedings. 

As Confectionery Production discovered from walking its aisles, the sheer diversity of products has impressed, from premium chocolate being offered from major manufacturers such as Lindt, as well as number of local regional producers devoted to the present megatrend for Dubai Chocolate, through to the return of the event’s festive showcase of seasonal items that have proved significantly popular in the region.

According to the show’s organisers, there has been a significant growth with the region’s snacks and confectionery market, which to a large degree has been driven by the UAE’s comparatively young demographics, as well as seeming thirst for European and US brands.

As organisers noted, with 58% of global consumers craving snacks more than meals, the ISM Middle East show floor buzzed as buyers hunted the next big sweet and snack phenomena, and global retailers explored category expansion and new market entry.

Similarly, with Middle East and Africa private label value sales growth accelerating at the fastest rate in the world, companies are united in their ambition to broaden portfolios and unlock new growth frontiers. This saw the additional halls dedicated to this area of the market also gather significant interest from visitors.

Significantly, the event’s conference continued with an evaluation of confectionery prospects for the MENA region. This included a keynote from Zeyneb Larabi, Global Retail and Travel Retail Director at Valrhona, who praised the development of Dubai Chocolate as opening a gateway for developing broader confectionery ranges.

In relation to forging its own premium ranges, she said ‘you don’t need to sell people a product, you are selling them a memory,’ and delivering something that feels like a unique experience. Delivering on quality, as well as genuine innovation were equally important in her view.

Visitors to the show also heard a panel discussion focusing on creating snacks, featuring  Colm Smith Director of Blooming Foods marshmallow specialists, 
Mohamed El Mahdy, Marketing Director, Mondelez International and 
Rabail Ali, Founder – Good Candy Co.

The trio exchanged views on the types of trends that are making headway in 2025, including for protein, health and wellness, as well as for bold and innovative flavours and tastes. They noted that engaging strongly with social media platforms, as well as using tech including AI was increasingly important with its consumer outreach. (see our full review in an upcoming edition).

The event also featured a presentation from Phil Witcomb, of Arla ingredients, who explored the evolution of protein bars, noting there was ‘huge untapped potential’ within the UAE And Asia within the segment.

Speaking to Confectionery Production after his keynote, he added: “It’s been fantastic, this is my first time at ISM Middle East. I have done the Cologne show a number of times, and I was always fascinated to know what was going on in this market. There’s been lots of amazing ideas, really entrepreneurial businesses, and a lot of insights into what is happening in the region,” adding that there was no substitute for being at shows such as this.  

The speaker sessions were concluded in eventful style by leading chef Nouel Catis, who is behind the recipe success for Dubai Chocolate, who engaged the audience on the subject of what makes a product go viral.

He acknowledged that in turning his attention to the product, he had been inspired by a London recipe that he said had been ‘adapted for the Dubai market’ and believed that the international phenomenon had in fact only become popular due to the sheer level of emotional investment from consumers.

To his mind, creating such a winning recipe was a combination of branding, social media engagement, innovating to produce something that people really wanted to be part of, and just as importantly, that it tasted great, with the pistachio and Kataifi pastry that give it a crunchy edge.

New product innovation
From walking the event halls, there were no shortage of businesses offering something distinctive at this year’s event.

One of the most standout innovations came from UAE based Al Nassma chocolate and its sister Samha confectionery brand, which is believed to be the first confectionery company using camel’s milk for its ranges.

David Mwathi, sales associate, said: “The response from the market has been good, especially with the interest in Dubai Chocolate. So we have offerings in white and dark chocolate, as well as macadamia products,

“We’re actually the only company in the world that is making products from camel milk – for us it’s not challenging, as we do everything from scratch, and we have our own farms in the region from which it is produced. We have two brands- Al Nassma, and Samha, which is focused on our date ranges.

Most local people locally like to drink camel milk, and though we are at the festive showcase, it’s something that people like to enjoy all-year round. One of the really good things about our chocolate is that we don’t use any palm oil in its production,” noted the representative, who explained that the event had proved particularly successful for the business.

For its part, Blooming Foods, UAE specialists in marshmallows, also reported another key performance at this year’s event.

Colm Smith, of the company, said: “It’s been good for us, we’ve had some good conversations so far with it, though we’ll need to get back to the office and make those connections, but so far we are happy with the show.

“We have been looking to focus on our established core, speaking to existing partners, as well as seeking new markets for our ranges which include vanilla and strawberry flavours, as well as doing sour and chocolate options that are a bit outside the box,” noting that working with temperature sensitive product posed its challenges manufacturing in such a humid environment, yet he noted that the company has adapted its processes accordingly, and is continue on a growth trend.

Meanwhile, Daniela Pernambuco, international business development manager from Brazilian based Berbau confectionery, also believed there had been plenty of positive responses at this year’s event.

She said: “We came here last year, but not as traders, but to visit and to understand the market as we were in the process of adjusting our packaging so that it was appropriate for this region.  So we’ve come back ready to do business.

“It’s been great, and we’ve obviously had many contacts from the Middle East, but we have had people coming to us here from Japan and Australia and many African countries. It’s been a huge opportunity not only for the Middle East, but for other markets as well that we hadn’t reached before,” she enthused of its debut at the show, highlighting its range of hard and soft candies.

As she explained, there had been an encouragingly positive reaction to its new “Mega X-treme” confectionery series, which had given the business another key talking point at this year’s event, that’s shaping up to be one of its most dynamic iterations yet.