The Center East and North Africa (MENA) area is rising as a shiny spot in international client packaged items (CPG), with the UAE and Saudi Arabia serving to to guide quantity development, based on the inaugural Center East Client Merchandise Report 2025 by Bain & Firm.
The report examines what’s driving momentum throughout Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Iraq, and what CPG gamers should do to seize the following part of development within the area.
MENA’s CPG market generated greater than $450bn in fast-moving client items gross sales in 2024, together with round $200bn in meals and beverage and roughly $250bn in non-food classes.
Trying forward, the market is projected to succeed in as much as $650bn by 2030, representing annual development of round 5 per cent, supported by beneficial regional fundamentals and sustained client demand.
The findings draw on a survey of three,500 shoppers throughout the 4 focus markets, interviews with 20 regional CPG executives, and Bain’s proprietary evaluation supported by market information.
Faisal Sheikh, Senior Associate at Bain & Firm, stated: “CPG leaders ought to view MENA as a real development enviornment. The chance is actual, however the bar is rising—shoppers are extra time-starved, extra intentional, and more and more centered on belief and relevance.
“The winners would be the firms that tailor their development algorithms to the area’s realities and make investments behind the moments that matter most to native shoppers. This may inevitably imply streamlining the fee construction to create funds that may be reinvested behind development.”
Client packaged items sector development
The report highlights robust momentum in core markets. The UAE recorded roughly 6 per cent quantity development, considerably above the 1.7 per cent international common, whereas Saudi Arabia adopted with round 4 per cent development, alongside stable worth positive aspects.
Client sentiment throughout MENA stays resilient at 6.0 out of 10, with general spending holding up regardless of extra selective buying behaviour.
Whereas shoppers will not be pulling again, the report notes that buying selections have gotten extra intentional, with manufacturers more and more rewarded for delivering worth, belief and relevance relatively than relying solely on worth and availability.
Comfort has develop into a baseline expectation throughout the area, with round 37 per cent of MENA shoppers saying they don’t have sufficient time for each day necessities, making them extra time-strapped than international friends.
On the similar time, values and identification are taking part in a rising function in model relationships, with greater than half of MENA shoppers reporting boycotting manufacturers as a consequence of worth misalignment.
Digital adoption can be accelerating quickly. Within the UAE, e-commerce already accounts for between 12 per cent and 14 per cent of retail gross sales and is anticipated to rise to twenty per cent to 25 per cent by 2030, capturing round 60 per cent of incremental development available in the market.
Federico Piro, Associate at Bain & Company, stated: “MENA’s development is being formed by channel evolution and rising expectations on comfort, particularly in markets just like the UAE, the place e-commerce is already significant and nonetheless increasing.
“Firms that adapt route-to-market, sharpen their portfolios, and execute with self-discipline can seize development whereas strengthening model resilience.”
Towards a world backdrop of slowing CPG development and restricted quantity positive aspects of round 1.7 per cent worldwide, the report notes that whereas MENA stands out as a development engine, firms within the area are navigating shifting consumption patterns, rising price pressures, regulatory complexity, and intensifying competitors from rebel manufacturers and robust native incumbents.
Growth technique
To succeed, the report outlines three strategic imperatives for CPG gamers. These embody rethinking development algorithms to maximise core market revenue swimming pools whereas increasing into new classes and geographies, reinventing productiveness by simplifying portfolios and operations to liberate assets for development, and redefining the function of synthetic intelligence and know-how in enterprise fashions.
Whereas 91 per cent of worldwide executives recognise the long-term strategic significance of generative AI, solely 6 per cent report having a transparent and actionable roadmap by the tip of 2025.
Karim Chehade, Affiliate Associate at Bain & Firm, stated: “The following chapter in MENA will reward firms that flip complexity into benefit, by simplifying the place it counts, releasing up assets by means of steady productiveness, and utilizing know-how to construct deeper buyer intimacy and operational excellence. It is a second to be daring and sensible on the similar time.”
Taken collectively, the findings level to a transparent mandate for client items firms working within the area.
MENA stays one of many world’s most dynamic frontiers for client merchandise, however sustained success would require methods tailor-made to native realities, decisive management and disciplined execution to safe each resilience and relevance within the on a regular basis lives of shoppers.
