In northern Iraq, stores are dashing to fill their cabinets with chocolates. The Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, or Festival of the Sacrifice, is approaching – and it’s a crucial part of the yr foyearconfectionery corporations.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, as elsewhere, the four-day competition, which starts on Sunday, is a time for birthday parties and feasting—and candies are plentiful on the menu.
That’s good news for Sulaymaniyah-based businessman Farhad Haseb, who sells confectionery to upmarket shops in Erbil and Dohuk, as well as other towns and cities in the region.
“In our lifestyle, each person buys very sweet things to offer to their guests while they are touring their homes,” he says.
“Toffee is a popular desire for Kurdish human beings, especially during Ramadan and Eid.”
Iraqi Kurdistan profile
What is Eid al-Adha?
Families throughout Iraqi Kurdistan could be tucking into goodies that were made two thousand six hundred miles away in Scotland.
Greenock-based confectioner Golden Casket, probably best known in the UK for its Millions brand, is one of Mr Haseb’s important global providers.
He first met the Scottish company numerous years ago at a confectionery trade show and has been ordering growing quantities of its Halal-licensed fudge, chocolate eclairs, and various toffees each year.
Iraq is now Golden Casket’s 1/3 largest export marketplace, after America and Ireland.
The circle of relatives-owned firm produces about 70 tonnes of toffees, boilings, fudges, goodies, and chews weekly.
So, some distance this year, more than 60 tonnes of its Buchanan logo chocolates were sent to the area.
So, what’s behind the success of Scottish toffee in Iraqi Kurdistan?
“In our subculture, eclairs and butter toffees are very famous,” says Mr Haseb.
“We buy them from Belgium and Poland, but Scottish toffee is exceptional – it’s far extra chewy. We are promoting increasingly each 12 months.”
Mr Haseb, whose employer, Arak Garden, imports more than 200 tonnes of toffee and chocolate annually, expects to place extra orders with Golden Casket this year.
The Scottish agency, also recognized inside the UK for its “OnePounders” bags, has been modifying to cater to the developing Iraqi marketplace.
These days, it sets up new equipment to boost its chocolate eclair production ability.
The company has also been paying close attention to packaging merchandise for the Iraqi market.
Sales manager Stuart Rae explains: “Each jar of toffee or fudge has been given to be gold-wrapped—gold is a sign of niceness—and it has to be made inside the UK.
“That’s the excessive-stop stuff for the Kurdish marketplace in Iraq.”
Golden Casket’s dealings with director Crawford Rae, also chairman of Greenock Morton Football Club, see Iraq and its environs as a “tremendous opportunity.”
He says, “We exhibited in Dubai for the first time in November—this is an emerging marketplace and one that we want to enter, and export is sincerely a boom ability for us.”
The Kurdish link is welcome for Golden Casket, particularly as the general confectionery marketplace within the UK remains especially flat.
