Bakeries in the UAE are bracing for Ramadan with huge orders and special menus lined up. Some are expecting long queues of diners till 3am while others are looking forward to sales running into the thousands.
At the Bake Al Arab bakery, special Ramadan gift boxes are already up on the shelves. “This is one of our fastest-moving items because people buy them as gifts a lot,” said a shopkeeper.
“In addition to that, we also get a lot of orders for cakes, chocolate arrangements, and these special pudding-like desserts we make. Some of the puddings are customised according to the customer’s taste.”
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In another fridge, there were date arrangements and sandwich platters. “The dates are dipped and then decorated in a special arrangement. This is very popular during Ramadan,” he said.
“The sandwiches are also fast-moving. We usually get really huge orders, especially for parties, during the month but I think during the six years I have been working here, the largest order we had was worth Dh20,000.”
Ramadan is most likely to begin on Tuesday, March 12, according to the latest astronomical calculation and the month of fasting is expected to last the full 30 days.
Longer hours
Many bakeries will remain open until late at night to meet the Ramadan crowd.
“We are open from 3pm until 3am,” said Mohammed, a shopkeeper at Gulf Pastry. “We take our last order at 2.30am. In fact, people keep coming even after that but we close it. Usually a little after iftar, there are long lines of cars outside our shop to order our pastries and drink karak.”
For them, the items that usually fly off the shelves are the Arabic pastries fatayer and pizzas. “Both these items are especially popular during Ramadan,” he said. “On most days, we run out them because of the rush. Some people order them in bulk while others just take boxes for Iftar parties and gatherings.”
At Shahad Al Emarat bakery in Al Warqaa, the shop is already full of Arabic sweets and chocolates.
“These are for the pre-Ramadan rush,” said a spokesperson. “We have items like cakes, cheese buns, kunafa. Next week, we will have a special Ramadan menu that will include a cake which is extremely popular. We also serve chicken rolls, samosas, mini pizza, and sandwiches during the month. These are made to order so people book them well in advance.”
Ready-to-cook items
Several bakeries also reported increase in demand for ready-to-cook items that families can easily whip up at home.
At Lebanese Dream bakery, the most popular item was a little bun. “This is called the Arabic small bun and most people use this to make sandwiches and serve,” said the shopkeeper Maya.
“These have to be pre-ordered and we usually get orders for them in the hundreds. We also have manakish and qatayef, which are extremely popular. Our customers start coming in from 4pm until our closing time at 2am.”
Another outlet, Grand Bake, said frozen goods are in high demand, too.
“We have croissants, pizzas and chicken rolls,” said Ahmed, from the shop. “We usually sell these for Dh350 for 12 trays of 12 items each. In the run-up to Ramadan, we have put them on offer for Dh225. These are flying off the shelves and we are having to restock our fridge every day.”
At Al Arz Automatic Bakery, the most popular item was the regag bread. “We especially introduce them during Ramadan,” said sales manager Mashood. “People usually buy them to put in their curries. These are extremely popular in our shop as well as in the hypermarkets supermarkets that we supply to.”