Dear Reader,
We are pleased to share the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter with you.
Indeed, we are already more than three months into the year and now may be a good time to take an honest look at where we stand on our New Year’s resolutions. What were they exactly? Being healthy, eating healthy.
In this edition, we continue with our focus on optimal health and nutrition. Non-communicable diseases (obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer) are becoming reasons for concern worldwide and this trend is no less present in the GCC. GCC governments are placing great focus on raising public awareness about these diseases. The focus on reducing such diseases in the GCC is emphasized on both in the UAE Vision 2021 and KSA vision 2030, which outline the concern about the rising rate of these diseases in the GCC.
As per ARDENT Advisory & Accounting, GCC Healthcare Sector Report from Oct 2015, lifestyle diseases form a major category, demanding healthcare attention in the GCC region. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), all GCC countries, except Oman, rank among the top 10 countries with the highest diabetes rates in the world. Kuwait topped the list with 21.1% of its population in the 20 to 79 age group suffering from diabetes. This figure far exceeds the global average of 8.3%.
According to the International Diabetes Federation, based on the study done in 2017 in the UAE, 11.81% of people between the age of 20 and 79 are affected by diabetes.
The score was 13.69% for obese children in the UAE, based on the study of children between the ages of 5 and 17 conducted by Ministry of Health and Prevention in 2017.
The numbers are increasing and worrisome, but the bright side to this is that awareness and knowledge among the consumers are increasing as well. Furthermore, in the consumers’ effort to adopt a healthier lifestyle and to include exercise in their daily routine, we can also see the demand for healthier and fortified foods increasing, and the niche categories growing in the region. Consumers are demanding more from their foods nowadays and are looking for foods to satisfy their daily nutritional and energy needs. Fortunately, there are many options available to achieve this objective.
On the following pages of this newsletter, we bring to you the information about oat beta-glucan, an ingredient that can assist us in the fight against non-communicable diseases.
We also introduce to you the latest solutions by DuPont, new product options available from Fonterra, as well as a brief outlook on the dairy commodities.
We hope you will find this report informative and useful. Please feel free to share your feedback and comments with us and do let us know if there is any topic of interest which you would like us to include in our future newsletters.
We also take this opportunity to wish everyone a blessed Ramadan season, which is now just around the corner.
Thank you from the FSL Team
