MEADFA
The MEADFA agenda – Advocacy, sustainability and setting new benchmarks
Middle East & Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA) board members address about the key agenda topics for the regional body, as the annual MEADFA Conference draws near.
“Since last year much has changed in our region and in the wider world, and not always for the better. We hope and pray that 2025 will bring peace and stability to the Middle East and Africa. Despite the challenges posed by the geopolitical situation, the dynamics that underpin our market in the Middle East and Africa are very positive.”
So said Middle East & Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA) President Sherif Toulan (who is also CEO of Cairo-based IDF Trading & Agencies) as he summed up the big picture for the region at a press conference during TFWA World Exhibition earlier this month.
The backdrop of violence and humanitarian crisis sparked by conflict in Gaza and the wider region has direct implications for many MEADFA members and their people.
“We have deep concerns over what is now happening in Lebanon where we have many members,” says Toulan. “We support our members as best we can.”
Travel & tourism has fallen away dramatically in the worst-affected locations, but growth elsewhere offers a positive counter-balance. Toulan points to the fast-rising passenger traffic at hub airports such as Dubai International and Hamad International, as well as continuing investment in infrastructure, including at Zayed International, serving Abu Dhabi, where this year’s MEADFA Conference takes place.
MEADFA President Sherif Toulan addresses a press conference in Cannes. He is joined by board members (from left) Rob Marriott, Munif Mohammed and Roger Jackson.
Assessing the key agenda items for MEADFA today, Toulan places advocacy right at the top. The defence of duty free tobacco at regional and global level (in the face of threat from the World Health Organization’s Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products) mirrors local challenges such as a drive for plain packaging in markets such as Mauritius, which is intended to be applied in travel retail too. MEADFA is active in this defence, says Toulan.
As certain categories have come under threat, so brand owners in those sectors have joined MEADFA to lean on its support and the resources it offers via the Duty Free World Council and other bodies.
Association membership, which had reached a record 74 companies by early October, has been bolstered with new brands, distribution companies and retailers. This is almost three times the membership level of four years ago when the Membership Committee chaired by Organico Solutions Managing Director Roger Jackson began a renewed recruitment drive. Speaking in Cannes, Jackson said he believed a membership of 100-plus was in sight, especially if MEADFA can encourage more beauty companies to join.
African membership too remains a core target, especially following the MEADFA Conference in Ghana last year. The close relationship MEADFA has developed with Airports Council International (ACI) Africa has been valuable in this respect, with the association represented at the recent regional congress in South Africa which featured a special session on airport retail.
Among other developments, the MEADFA Board recently agreed to establish a Charter for ESG action, hailed by the association’s Sustainability Lead (and CEO of Lagardère Travel Retail Saudi Arabia Munif Mohammed) as “the next major step in our agenda for sustainability”.
MEADFA board members pictured after the Cannes press event: (from left) Rob Marriott (ARI Middle East), Roger Jackson (Organico Solutions), Munif Mohammed (Lagardère Travel Retail), Milika Kalyati (JTI), Sherif Toulan (IDF Trading) and Ramesh Cidambi (Dubai Duty Free)
He said: “We are competitors in the marketplace, but for the first time, we want to work together to create more responsible products, because we know that most of our carbon footprint comes from the products that we sell.
“The ambition is not simply to encourage the manufacturer to change packaging and claim it’s more sustainable. It is to get companies to sign up to a charter and co-create more responsible products.”
MEADFA is now working on a set of qualifying standards and targets that companies can sign up to. Beyond this will be measurable targets for the products themselves, with the expectation that manufacturers will apply for and gain third-party certification.
Mohammed added: “We are each already doing some of this via our own programmes. This way we could create a programme where the manufacturer will benefit from global scale and volume. We are all selling the same product and we are all setting the same expectation. We would then share information with consumers about what we have done and why certain products are more sustainable.
“There are many steps to take yet. We are now seeking external advice on the legal side and on marketing & communication, and we will supply more details at the MEADFA Conference.”
*More on MEADFA’s activities will appear in The Moodie Davitt Report November Magazine, which appears at the MEADFA Conference.
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The Moodie Davitt eZine
Issue 339 | 22 October 2024
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