Can Emirati Ingredients Become a Global Food Trend?

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
This is the Morning Drive at Mira Business FM. The question this morning, can traditional Emirati ingredients become the next global food trend? One UAE entrepreneur believes dates and camel milk could be the foundation of a new generation of premium high protein snacks, while also supporting food security, local manufacturing and sustainable innovation. Joining us is Rashid Gargash, the founder of Rations, the homegrown nutrition brand, hopefully reimagining regional ingredients for modern consumes. It's good to meet you, Rashid.

**Rashid Gargash** (0:36)
Great to meet you too.

**Tim Elliott** (0:38)
Good to have you here.
So look, let's start with your, I guess your journey. It didn't start in a commercial kitchen. It was research into, I've read, humanitarian aid and food security. So how does a mission to solve childhood malnutrition in developing regions lead to a commercial protein bite in a premium glass jar? How did that happen?

**Rashid Gargash** (1:05)
Well, I actually started out with a question. How can I feed an entire country from within our country? So it was essentially a food system for, engineered for children. I just realized that the same model could actually work with my nephews, and I just iterated for them. So I replaced everything. So it, rations is basically a dichotomy. It's the product and the distribution. You could actually reflect that towards the culture here. So for me, I'm a very family-oriented person. I'm a very typical Emirati. I love my country, I love my people, and I love my family, and I love my leadership. So especially to the family part, so I wanted my nephews to have the best of everything. So I replaced the ingredients with super high quality premium versions of the actual product that I was developing.
So what would that be? It's camel milk, because that's what we have in the desert, and Halas dates. So Halas dates are basically the best type of dates. And the oil that I put in is A2G, so it's organic.

**Tim Elliott** (2:05)
Okay. I've got you. Well, look, I'm a huge date fan, so I'm with you. You had me at dates, as it were.
What was the turning point where you decided, right, Rashtions is going to be more than an outreach project. This is going to become a consumer brand.

**Rashid Gargash** (2:23)
Well, Dubai is a brand in itself, and I wanted it to be something that I grew up with. So these are flavors that I grew up with. And I wanted that not only here, but I wanted to export it to the rest of the world.

**Tim Elliott** (2:41)
Okay, yep, simple. What is it about dates and camel milk?
I mean, it's still, as far as I can tell, I mean, it's catching on camel milk, but it's still underutilized, let's put it that way. Despite being, I mean, regionally, camel milk is, I hate to use the word iconic, but it's the best word I can use. Why is it not used more?

**Rashid Gargash** (3:09)
Well, people are not very familiar with the different variations of dates, first of all. So there are many, many types of dates. There's Khallas, Sukkari, there's many, many types. So when it's underutilized, yeah, but there's a huge variation. And within the GCC, there's even variations of the variation that we have. So within Khallas, there's many types of variations, some that you can find in Saudi Arabia, some that are famous in Saudi Arabia and not famous here, for example. So in terms of camel milk, camel milk is not really as abundant as cow milk. So cow milk, all of the research and everything, so filtration and ultrafiltration, microfiltration, that's all done with cow milk.
All of the technology is built around cow milk. To reinvent the wheel and use it for camel milk is a whole separate research thing that you got to do before you actually do the production to it.

**Tim Elliott** (4:06)
Okay, okay, so it's limited essentially, is what you say.

**Rashid Gargash** (4:09)
It's limited and it's new.

**Tim Elliott** (4:12)
Right.
Consumers are demanding high protein snacks. You see more and more on supermarket shelves. How big did you, how do you view the opportunity for UAE made brands in a market that, I mean, it's pretty fast growing.

**Rashid Gargash** (4:27)
Okay, so the opportunity, I believe, in the UAE and within the GCC is quite huge.
And I see protein becoming something more mainstream and more like, so protein has a connotation to, this product is healthy, especially within the newer generation. So the way that I see the region especially is that protein production should eventually be made here. So as in powders and things like that. We're slowly going into it now, but not into powders, not into proper powders.