Chinese milk tea sold to ASEAN, the Middle East

In the past two years, an increasing number of Chinese milk tea brands have entered Middle Eastern countries. Overall, Dubai is the main city receiving many milk tea brands, with milk tea shops primarily located in high-traffic shopping malls. The drink is not cheap. According to the menus of local stores, the average price of their products is around 50 yuan.

Currently, the main direction of the Chinese tea beverage industry going global is Southeast Asia. For example, the recent restart of Nayuki Tea's overseas expansion first targeted Bangkok, capital of Thailand. And MIXUE Ice cream & tea has the highest number of overseas stores. Since opening its first store in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam under the brand name MIXUE in 2018, as of Sept. 30 in 2023, it has had approximately 4,000 overseas stores.

In June 2022, MIXUE opened its first store in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. Here, a drink only costs 4,000-5,000 riels (about 7.2-9 yuan), which is very popular among students. Subsequently, the number of branches expanded to six within eight months, showing strong development momentum.

And perhaps the untapped space in the Middle East region will become the next destination for these brands to explore overseas markets.

Compared to the European and American markets, milk tea is not a completely unfamiliar product for the Middle East region. Karak tea is one of their traditional drinks mixed with tea and milk. On the other hand, bilateral trade between China and the Middle East is experiencing rapid development, with bilateral trade reaching $507.152 billion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 27.1%. And the people flowing between the countries will be of great potential as well.

Source: Jiemian News; trans-editing by Wang Yunya