Hussein Awada, the owner of Lebanese Roastery in Abu Dhabi, used to give cardamom to his clients free. Those days are gone, for now anyway.

The price for the cardamom that Mr Awada imports from Guatemala has rocketed, up to Dh120 (US$32.67) a kilogram from Dh20 a kg a year ago.

Similarly, the cost of his arabic coffee, which is 100 per cent arabica, has jumped 10 per cent, from Dh40 to Dh44 a kg.

In the bigger picture, Mr Awada is fortunate: heightened demand globally combined with market forces has pushed up coffee futures by more than 20 per cent in the past four days.

The cause is a combination of poor harvests in Central America over consecutive years and speculation by several large fund managers who bet prices would fall and had to cover their positions this week.

Arabica futures rose another 1.7 per cent yesterday, to $186 per 60kg bag.

Mr Awada said he refused to raise prices to ensure he retained customers who had been coming to his shops – one on Defence Road and one in Khaldiya – for years. But the increased costs are eating into his margins, which were about 20 per cent last year. This year they are much lower.

“It’s a chain reaction where everyone is being affected,” he said.

Still, Mr Awada has managed to curb the effects of the recent peak in prices because he bought in advance after his supplier, with whom he has been dealing for 30 years, provided a report last November, which stated that prices were on the rise.

Others in the coffee business are suffering more severely.

“We are not doing any purchasing,” said Khalid Mohammed, the manager at Kahrban Dubai Trading, a coffee supply company.

“With the business as bad as it is, we have cut back coffee imports. We don’t do imports anymore unless we have a confirmed order.”

Mr Mohammed said his business was down 50 per cent from a year ago, through a combination of higher prices and the broader economic downturn.

Doug Whitehead, a soft-commodities analyst at Rabobank in London, does not believe prices are sustainable at these levels for long.

“Although this has caused a fair bit of pain for the roasters, as their margins get squeezed, the majority hold enough inventory that they would be able to pass the price shock relatively well,” Mr Whitehead said.

Mr Awada hopes he is right and so do his customers.

Conference in Bahrain stresses need for retaining employees at workplace

Manama, Bahrain, 07 April, 2010: Companies in the Gulf lose millions of dollars annually due to volatile staff turnover, a Pan Gulf conference has revealed. 

The Edexcel-organised Effective Behaviours for Work conference, attended by senior delegates representing government organisations, training providers and private companies from Bahrain and KSA, attributed this situation to the fragile relationship between employers and employees.

Mark Andrews, MENA Regional Director, Edexcel said: “Gulf governments and private sector employers across a multitude of industries are facing challenges in the area of effective employment practices while fresh graduates are taking time to flow into the corporate system of any company. Therefore, it is imperative that employers allow their staff to gain skills, knowledge and behaviours necessary to ensure their success in the workplace for mutual benefit.”

At the conference, Edexcel highlighted its new BTEC qualification, Effective Behaviours for Work, which is the first qualification in the world to measure and certificate people’s soft skills. The qualification was created following a major independent global research project sponsored by Edexcel, called Effective Education for Employment, which showed that employers felt potential employees lacked essential behaviours such as a willingness to learn and the ability to work as part of a team.

Andrews added: “There is an obvious prevalence of skill gaps which should be bridged in the Gulf. Most of the graduates through their academic and professional qualifications are ill-prepared for work. Employees are dissatisfied with the learning and development they receive from their employers who in turn complain that the staff turnover is high.”

Andrews further stated: “Attitude and in-work behaviours play a crucial role in building a long term relationship between employees and employers. Key skill gaps exist in the areas of leadership, teamwork, innovation and creativity.”

A training culture should take hold in the GCC if public and private sectors are to boost their businesses. Employers in every country of the GCC complain about young people graduating without a fundamental awareness of how they should behave in the workplace. They also stressed on the importance of positive attitude in developing productive employees.

The Effective Behaviours for Work qualification includes units such as “making the right decision”, “work ethic” and “managing conflict in teams” which are delivered using interactive experiential learning techniques.

Edexcel’s vocational qualifications provide a practical, real-world approach to learning alongside a theoretical background. They are designed both to replicate the professional working environment and provide learners with the skills, knowledge and behaviors they need to succeed in an increasingly competitive global market.
 
Edexcel, the leading UK-based awarding organisation, is part of Pearson, one of the world’s largest education services providers. It offers academic and professional qualifications and testing to thousands of schools, colleges, employers and other places of learning globally, and has over 4 million learners enrolled on its highly regarded courses in more than 85 countries.

Chinese fly the flag over national pavilion

Dubai, 6 March 2010: China is sending a massive contingency of airport ground support equipment, building material supplies providers and other key industry experts to the Airport Show 2010. For the first time, the country will collectively show its presence through a national pavilion.

The show, which runs from 25-27 April at the Airport Expo Dubai, attracts some of the world’s most influential figures in the sector, and has accounted for billions of dollars worth of contracts since its debut in 2001. More than 10 major Chinese companies have already confirmed their attendance, hoping to benefit from the Middle East and Africa airport market, which is bucking the global trend with 39 airports under construction.

The Chinese exhibitors will showcase a wide range of products and services to help in the development and maintenance of all airport facilities, including Conventional Aircraft Tractor and Towbarless Tractor, Container/Pallet Loader, Aircraft Refuller, Aircraft Conditioning Unit, Airport bus, Airport Firefighting Vehicle, Airport Security Inspection System, Passenger Boarding Bridge System and Airport Friction Measuring System.

Mr. Hongxin Qin, GM of China Civil Aviation Technology & Equipment Corporation Limited (AVITEC), the organizer of the Chinese Pavilion described the event as a great opportunity for China to demonstrate its growth and maturity in the market. “We represent some of the greatest success stories in airport management and development over the last ten years. As an industry, aviation has come into its own, and by default, new airports and new services have grown with it. China now has more than 135 civil airports in 133 cities. We’re no longer on the outside looking in, Chinese companies have a great deal to offer in their own right,” he said.

Airport Show 2010 is supported by leading aviation authorities and trade bodies including ADAC and Dubai Airports.

Mohamad Bader-Eddin, Show Director said: “The Airport Show is an extremely high profile event and is known throughout the world as one of the prime opportunities to conduct airport business. This year’s confirmation of the Chinese National Pavilion is creating even more interest. It is an amazing gathering of companies in an extremely specialized industry with an extremely large volume of business to conduct. We sincerely hope that many of those companies will have fruitful business talks during the show.”

The Airport Show has progressed rapidly to become one of the largest airport construction, operations, technology and services events in the world. The 2009 edition showcased 210 suppliers from 30 countries, over 10,500 sqm of exhibit space, and drew more than 4700 attendees.