Middle East Focus: Agthia’s Fuell, Iran-US war and UAE Nutri-Mark

Agthia’s ‘world-first dates energy drink’ targets category shake-up United Arab Emirates (UAE) based Agthia has entered the energy drink category with a world-first invention, attempting to appeal to a modern audience with a major regional ingredient: dates. This year, the firm has moved to widen its horizons yet again by entering a new category: Energy drinks. This has been marked with the launch of what the company claims to be the ‘world’s first energy drink sweetened with dates’, dubbed Fuell. Iran-US peace deal: What it means for food The deal included the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Food prices are unlikely to go down significantly as a result of the peace deal, at least in the short term, suggests Stephen Butler, CCO and co-founder of AI food commodities prediction platform ChAI. The impact of the deal is unlikely to be seen by consumers in their weekly shop. Prices “may not necessarily go up from where they are, but you won’t see a big drop,” he said. UAE’s Nutri-Mark nutrition labelling system goes digital The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has launched an app to bring its national nutritional labelling system to the next level. The Nutri-Mark front-of-pack labelling (FOPL) system was approved by the Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council (QCC) in 2025, making history as the first labelling system of its kind in the Middle East. Iran war food price crisis: How industry can prepare Three months on, the conflict continues to push up food prices. In a war like this one, anything could happen. No one truly knows how long the Strait will remain closed. If the conflict continues, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predicts, it could lead to a major crisis in food prices within six to 12 months. Pistachio pressure compounded by Iran War squeeze. Disruption from the conflict in Iran adds to existing pressure from weather and high demand from social media virality. The nut is seeing pressure from two directions. On the one side, there is high demand from the popularity of Dubai chocolate and other products. On the other, exports from Iran, a major producer of the nut, have been disrupted by the conflict there.