Dubai chocolate in Kuwait: 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 the Gulf knows as kunafa, which is why Kuwait searches for it as kunafa chocolate as often as Dubai chocolate. The name comes from the city where it went viral; 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

Hypermarket price lists, the airport, online shops that deliver a single bar, the cafés in Salmiya that make their own, and the price question. An importer reads those searches differently: the demand is proven, the shelf is already asking, and a shelf-stable bar with a producer behind it, dated on the pack and with the halal paperwork settled, 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 price question

For a shopper the price is set by the hypermarket; for an importer it is in the offer: the price per bar in US dollars, the case count, the pallet plan, the tariff line and the duty that applies on the day. Nothing that changes with the exchange rate or the season is printed on this site. A bar that lands by the pallet and sits on a co-operative shelf is a different product, at a different price, from a bar made by hand in a café, and Kuwait has room for both.

What the Kuwaiti entry needs

Arabic on the label with the ingredient list and allergens, net weight and the importer’s name, and the production and expiry dates printed on the pack in production; our certificates and analysis report per line; and a reefer in every season, because the Gulf is warm in every season. The Kuwait 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 Kuwaiti private label page goes through the formats, the Arabic label content and the artwork approval. A chocolate house that wants its own name on a bar it does not have to make itself has a producer for it, and the pistachio cream and the kadayif filling are sold on their own for the houses that pour their own shells.

What to send first

The lines from the chocolate page, the dragée page and the Turkish delight page, the quantity per line, the port, Shuwaikh or Shuaiba, and whether any line carries your own brand. The written offer follows within two working days, in US dollars, with the certifying body named per line; the samples page explains how to taste the lines first, and the Kuwait 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.