Soft milk chocolate on the outside, with soft pistachio cream and crunchy, sweet kadayif strands on the inside: for many consumers, Dubai chocolate is the epitome of sweet luxury.
Sarah Hamouda, director of Dubai-based manufacturer Fix Dessert Chocolatier, is credited with inventing this popular confection. With the help of influencers, Hamouda’s creation took off on social media, marketed as an exclusive new culinary trend that spread around the world.
Priced on average at €7 ($8) per 100 grams, homemade candy bar recipes have also become increasingly popular online. But this trend comes at another price: since demand for Dubai chocolate accelerated in late 2023, the global appetite for pistachios has also increased.
In 2024, imports of pistachios (in shells) to the European Union increased by more than a third compared to the previous year, with the market value exceeding 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) for the first time.
Passion for pistachios drains water resources
This has consequences for countries where pistachios are grown. These trees thrive in hot, dry climates, where they are increasingly replacing other crops, such as olive trees. In Spain, Europe’s leading producer, the areas cultivated with pistachios have quintupled since 2017.
Pistachios are “an interesting fruit in terms of climate change” and could be “a good climate adaptation” for growers, said Stig Tanzmann, agricultural consultant for Bread for the World, a development organization affiliated with Germany’s Protestant churches.
But the reality is usually different because trees require additional irrigation. “You have a climate-adapted plant, but then you irrigate to ensure the high yields you need in a high-price market,” he said.
More than 10,000 liters (2,600 gallons) of water are needed to produce 1 kilogram of pistachios – and most of that comes from supplemental irrigation. In dry regions this can cause huge water problems. For comparison, it takes on average just under 2,800 liters to produce 1 kilogram of peanuts – and almost 90% of the water needed for this production comes from rainwater.
Furthermore, pistachios, like many other agricultural products suddenly in demand on the global market, are mainly grown in monocultures, Tanzmann explained. This has many negative consequences, such as massive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
Although pistachios tolerate heat well, they are affected by milder winters caused by climate change. Trees need cold temperatures for a period of time to flower – and without flowers, there is no fruit.
The matcha craze is stifling the market
Other food trends like matcha tea are also having a negative impact. The green, bitter powder has always been exclusive, and now even more so since demand has exploded around the world.
Originally from China, the best matcha is now grown in Japan. There, the tea plants are specially shaded before harvesting, which is usually carried out using hand-guided machines. After picking, the tea leaves are steamed and aerated, the stems and veins of the leaves are removed, and then only the flesh of the leaves is ground.
In Japan, high-quality green tea powder is mainly used for traditional tea ceremonies. But because it contains many antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, in recent years matcha has become a sought-after superfood around the world, from ready-made matcha lattes to matcha chocolate bars.
According to the German Tea Association, more than 240 tonnes of matcha were delivered to Germany alone between January and August 2024, an increase of 240% compared to the same period the previous year. The hype continues because healthy eating is trendy, the association said. The global matcha market is expected to almost double over the next five to seven years, according to international market analysis companies.
Growing demand is already leading to shortages. The website of Marukyu Koyamaen, one of Japan’s leading tea exporters, states that availability of all matcha products is now limited. At competitors, like Ippodo Tea, almost all the matcha is sold out.
In the Japanese tea market, the purchase price of matcha is almost three times higher than last year and retail prices have doubled, reports Yuji Yamakita, an independent tea merchant in Kyoto. “The high prices especially affect people who hold tea ceremonies and confectionery manufacturers. I’ve heard that some people have stopped drinking matcha or don’t drink it as much as before,” Yamakita said.
This has a particularly negative impact on tea merchants who supply the Japanese domestic market. Yamakita fears that tea producers, who lack equipment and financial resources, will not be able to meet growing demand and will go out of business.
Quinoa madness destroys farmland
Quinoa is another example of a negative global food trend. The pseudocereal is native to the Andes in South America. In 2013, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations declared 2013 the International Year of Quinoa. The aim was to highlight the importance of quinoa for food security. However, it was soon marketed as a superfood and its consumption quickly increased.
In the two main producing countries, Peru and Bolivia, prices rose so sharply that local people could barely afford to buy their own basic foods, Tanzmann said.
The environment has also suffered. Traditionally, agricultural land in the Andes is left fallow for seven years to allow soil recovery, according to German development organization Welthungerhilfe. But due to high demand, many farmers have reduced the cultivation period to just one year. This has often led to the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and heavy machinery that compacts the soil.
In addition, areas unsuitable for cultivation have been developed, said Markus Wolter, an agriculture and nutrition expert at the Catholic development organization Misereor. One example is a shrub-covered desert region in the highlands of Bolivia, where llamas were previously bred.
“It’s way too dry there for large-scale growing of crops like quinoa,” Wolter said. “It worked well for a few years because there was enough rain early on in the boom, but for several years now that rain has not materialized.”
Plowing the soil for agriculture also had negative effects. “In this climate with strong winds, you should not plow at all, because what little fertile soil there is is quickly blown away by the wind,” Wolter said. It also makes it more difficult to return to livestock farming after growing quinoa because the pastures are less fertile, he added.
What’s left when the hype is over?
Whether it’s pistachios, matcha, quinoa or any other food trend, fair trade organizations advise producers not to become economically dependent on a single agricultural product.
This means growing crops not only for the global market, but also for local markets, said Claudia Brück, director of Fairtrade Germany. This way, producers can still make money even when the craze dies down and prices drop.
“The idea is to move away from monocultures and, in particular, to grow two rows of coffee and one row of beans. This makes the soil healthy and allows farmers to produce their own food. And then one can also grow mangoes for the international market, for example,” Brück said.
Not only farmers, but also those who start and promote food trends need to think and act more sustainably, Tanzmann said. “When you start something like this, you actually have a responsibility in such a trend and you have to think about it from start to finish – and not just focus on selling as much as possible.”
This article was originally written in German.
