Mak Tok – Bringing Malaysian Flavours To The UAE

As many of you may have seen from our social channels, team Mak Tok went to the sunny shores of the Persian Gulf coast on a business trip to Dubai (yes, we brought our sambal pastes with us). With regular updates posted on our IGstories you may have seen plenty of food, sunny trips out including Expo 2020 and the lovely sights Dubai had to offer. I mean working hard playing hard is the way to live right? But the main reason we went over to Dubai was because of work reasons and to attend the annual Gulfood trade exhibition. Gulfood is the world’s largest food and beverage drink exhibition and has some of the best food brands for all over the world attending. 

Aim of our trip

Here at Mak Tok our mission since starting has always been to spread the taste of Malaysia and bring our flavours to the hearts of everyone across the world. So recently the team have been exploring new markets and exporting opportunities. Working closely with the Department of Trade we were able to arrange virtual meetings before attending and understand the market and shopping trends currently in the UAE and saw a gap in the market for our Malaysian chilli paste (sambal) products. Did you know that about 90% of the food in Dubai is imported in?

Gulfood

Arriving at the Dubai World Trade Centre on the first day, it was amazing to see the scale and size of the event. With each country having their own pavilion showcasing some of the most innovative and amazing brands they had to offer, you can imagine how big the actual event itself was. Working our way round the first hall on the opening day and getting to grips with the layout we explored and sampled some amazing food. Too bad no one was serving rendang or satay whilst we were there.

The great thing about being back a trade shows was getting to meet people in person again and have face-to-face meetings back. Highlights included the networking breakfast put on by Department for International Trade (DIT), a store visit to see how the operations work in these stores and the many lessons learnt with some great talks put on at the event.

What's to come for Mak Tok?!

After a range of exciting meetings which ranged from buyers, meeting other amazing brands and marketing agencies, we should have some exciting news coming your way soon. Be sure to go checkout our upcoming video set to be released this week to find out more about what we got up to.

I’m glad to announce that Mak Tok delicious sambals will be available in Dubai very soon!

Till we meet again.

Bye Bye #Dubai