Dubai chocolate in Kenya: the bar behind the searches, and where the pistachio comes from

The bar

A thick milk chocolate shell filled with pistachio cream and toasted kadayif, the shredded pastry that gives the bite its crunch. The name comes from the city where it went viral, a flight away across the ocean; the filling comes from further north. Pistachio is grown around Gaziantep and kadayif is made there in the same streets, which is why we were making pistachio and kadayif fillings long before the bar had a name, and why the bar is now made there in retail, gift and catering formats.

Where the searches go

Where to buy, the supermarket, the online shops that deliver a bar across Nairobi, and the price. An importer reads those searches differently: the demand is proven, the supermarket shelf is already asking, and a bar with a producer behind it, on the right shelf in the right container, is what the trade is missing. The chocolate page lists the bar and the pistachio tablets next to it; pistachio cream in jars is on the pistachio page.

The chiller question

This bar is chocolate, and in Kenya that decides where it can be sold: the supermarket with a chiller, the mall, the hotel, the airport, not the duka in the afternoon sun. It travels in a reefer year round on this route and is stated as chocolate on the offer, next to the compound lines that go to the everyday shelf. An importer that plans the two shelves separately sells both; one that puts the bar on the duka shelf sells neither.

The price question

For a shopper the price is set by the supermarket; for an importer it is in the offer: the price per bar in US dollars, the case count, the pallet plan, the tariff line, the duty that applies on the day and the inspection cost. Nothing that changes with the exchange rate or the season is printed on this site. The Kenya page lists what stays the same on every offer.

Under whose name

In our standard packs from the first container, or under your own brand: the Kenyan private label page goes through the formats, the label content in English and Swahili, the inspection and the artwork approval. A supermarket group or a distributor that wants its own name on the bar for the chiller has a producer for it.

What to send first

The lines from the chocolate page, the confectionery page and the Turkish delight page, the quantity per line, where you clear, and whether any line carries your own brand. The written offer follows within two working days, in US dollars and the inspection stated; the samples page explains how to taste the lines first, and the Kenya page lists what stays the same on every offer.

Every line here is made in our own factory at Başpınar OSB, Gaziantep — a 10,000 m² site, exporting since 2002 — and certificate copies are available on request.