Annie Miekle hardly ever eats out at restaurants and instead loves cooking at home.
When it comes to buying most of the products she uses for her culinary escapades, Ms Miekle, 31, who lives in Dubai, says the UAE is a lot cheaper than her native Canada.
Graphic:
The National's food price survey The National compares the cost of 40 goods in the UAE with their prices around the world. See the results here (PDF).
"Here, I do find that a lot of things are really, really cheap," she says. "Basic stuff is cheap and it's the sort of higher-quality, organic stuff that is expensive."
Other expatriates also say basic foods are cheaper here than in many other places, although the UAE imports most of its food.
Davide Rizzo, an entrepreneur who moved to the Emirates three months ago, says supermarket food is much cheaper here than Europe.
"The fresh fruit and vegetables I was used to consuming in Europe, like tomatoes, are not always available at good quality and decent prices here," he says. "[But] generally, food shopping in Dubai has been much less expensive."
According to a price comparison by The National of nearly 40 products in Carrefour Hypermarket in the UAE, the retailer's prices fare well next to well-known peers from around the world. Carrefour, which is 75 per cent owned by the UAE company Majid Al Futtaim, is the biggest grocery retailer in the Emirates, according to Euromonitor International, a research and information consultancy. Carrefour Majid Al Futtaim declined to comment.
For basic items such as flour, rice, bread and potatoes, Carrefour in the UAE offers lower prices than are shown on websites such as Tesco.com in the UK, Carrefour.fr in France, Coles.com.au in Australia and Safeway.com in the US.
Even for many branded products such as Coca-Cola, Heinz Baked Beans and Kellogg's Corn Flakes, prices in the UAE compare favourably to global supermarket prices.
Given that the UAE imports more than 85 per cent of its food, shoppers might be pleasantly surprised to find their cash goes further here.
But industry experts say a combination of factors results in lower prices in the UAE, including the Government's decision this year to freeze the prices of 400 items in 70 supermarket outlets.
"Absolutely the controls have had an effect," says Simon Williams, the chief economist at HSBC Middle East. "You do get the kind of shifts in global commodity prices mirrored in retail because of the price controls, and that has a knock-on effect on the other goods the shop sells."
The Government launched its pricing campaign amid civil unrest in parts of the Middle East and North Africa that was triggered in part by rising food prices.
Prices of sugars, oils, fats, dairy and meatsrose dramatically in 2009 and last year, peaking at record levels in February of this year, more than 50 per cent higher than 2008, according to the UNFood and Agriculture Organization's Food Price Index.
Global prices have since moderated. But intervention is not the only reason that prices are relatively low across the Emirates, says Michael Wright, the chief executive of Spinneys in the Middle East. "Violent" competition among retailers keeps prices low, he says.
"The majority of people in the [Gulf] region are still buying lower-priced products. They are buying the staples, and compared to commodity products in Europe and the US, they are cheap," Mr Wright says.
According to The National's comparison of staple items, Carrefour in the UAE had the cheapest basket of basic foods, followed by Tesco in the UK, which was 5 per cent higher.
Branded products are also cheaper in the UAE than in some other countries because import duties are "negligible", says Mr Wright, and brands are not subject to taxes such as value-added tax levied in the UK, which adds 20 per cent to the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola.
Fred Watts, the operations director at Almaya Supermarket, agrees that UAE import duties on food are not high by international standards.
"I would say that food prices [are] of a similar price but it depends on the commodity. In some cases it could be lower than other places around the world," he says. "You have to be specific to each item."
Lee Linthicum, the head of food research at Euromonitor, says the presence of global companies in the Middle East also lowers the cost of branded goods.
"There's a few major players with big facilities in Dubai, Bahrain and in Kuwait," he says. "So the products are more or less in the neighbourhood."
He says shipping is also likely to be cheaper than in Europe and the US because of fuel subsidies.
Companies such as Dubai Refreshments, which bottles Pepsi, and Unilever, which has a tea factory in Jebel Ali, can get their products to supermarkets cheaply and quickly.
"Major brands are well established in logistics and supply chains in the region. They are very efficient," says Mr Wright.
Retailers here take a smaller margin than many of their counterparts around the world, which also contributes to lower prices in the UAE.
Big supermarkets in the US and Europe typically take an average 30 per cent markup across all products, whereas for retailers in the UAE, the margin is less than 20 per cent.
Differences in rates of inflation could also help to explain the lower supermarket prices in the UAE.
Dubai's annual inflation rate crept down to 0.2 per cent last month as food prices fell, while Abu Dhabi's inflation slowed to a 23-month low of 0.6 per cent last month. This compares with a UK consumer price index annual inflation of 4.8 per cent announced last week.
But it is not all good news for UAE consumers. Despite the generally lower prices, because the UAE has a diverse expatriate community, many products here are more expensive than elsewhere in the world.
"The only area you see pricing significantly above western supermarkets is for niche products that people require from their home country, or fresh produce," says Mr Wright. These products usually have to be flown in, which hugely increases the costs. "A crumpet is a mass product in the UK and doesn't cost a lot, but in the UAE it's very niche."
rjones@thenational.ae
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
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SPECS
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RESULTS
5pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Purebred Arabian Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Winked, Connor Beasley, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Cup Listed (TB) Dh 380,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Boerhan, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard
6.30pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Group 3 (PA) Dh 500,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Jewel Crown Group 1 (PA) Dh 5,000,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Messi, Pat Dobbs, Timo Keersmaekers
7.30pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Handicap (PA) Dh 150,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Harrab, Ryan Curatolo, Jean de Roualle
8pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alareeq, Connor Beasley, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
The Ashes
Results
First Test, Brisbane: Australia won by 10 wickets
Second Test, Adelaide: Australia won by 120 runs
Third Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
Fourth Test: Melbourne: Drawn
Fifth Test: Australia won by an innings and 123 runs
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
The specs: Aston Martin DB11 V8 vs Ferrari GTC4Lusso T
Price, base: Dh840,000; Dh120,000
Engine: 4.0L V8 twin-turbo; 3.9L V8 turbo
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic; seven-speed automatic
Power: 509hp @ 6,000rpm; 601hp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 695Nm @ 2,000rpm; 760Nm @ 3,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.9L / 100km; 11.6L / 100km
SPECS
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The%20Specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201.6-litre%204-cylinder%20petrol%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E118hp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20149Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Six-speed%20automatic%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh61%2C500%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Two-step truce
The UN-brokered ceasefire deal for Hodeidah will be implemented in two stages, with the first to be completed before the New Year begins, according to the Arab Coalition supporting the Yemeni government.
By midnight on December 31, the Houthi rebels will have to withdraw from the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Issa and Al Saqef, coalition officials told The National.
The second stage will be the complete withdrawal of all pro-government forces and rebels from Hodeidah city, to be completed by midnight on January 7.
The process is to be overseen by a Redeployment Co-ordination Committee (RCC) comprising UN monitors and representatives of the government and the rebels.
The agreement also calls the deployment of UN-supervised neutral forces in the city and the establishment of humanitarian corridors to ensure distribution of aid across the country.
EA%20Sports%20FC%2024
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Company%20Profile
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MATCH DETAILS
Chelsea 4
Jorginho (4 pen, 71 pen), Azpilicueta (63), James (74)
Ajax 4
Abraham (2 og), Promes (20). Kepa (35 og), van de Beek (55)