Light milk chocolate on the outside, soft pistachio cream on the inside and crunchy, sugar-sweetened Kadayif strands – for many consumers, Dubai chocolate is the epitome of sweet luxury.
Sarah Hamouda, head of Dubai-based manufacturer Fix Dessert Chocolatier, is credited with inventing the popular confectionery. With the help of influencers, Hamouda’s creation took off on social media and was marketed as a new, niche food trend that has spread around the world.
At an average cost of €7 ($8) per 100 grams, home recipes for chocolate bars have also become increasingly popular online. But the trend has another cost: As demand for Dubai chocolate surges in late 2023, the global appetite for pistachios has also increased. In 2024, imports of pistachios (in shell) into the EU increased by more than a third compared to the previous year, with the market value exceeding €1 billion ($1.16 billion) for the first time.
Passion for pistachios wastes water resources
This has an impact on the countries where pistachios are grown. The trees thrive in hot, dry climates, where they are rapidly replacing other crops such as olive trees. The area under pistachio cultivation in Spain, Europe’s biggest producer, has increased fivefold since 2017.
Stig Tanzmann, agricultural adviser at Bread for the World, a development organization affiliated with Germany’s Protestant churches, said pistachios are “an interesting fruit in the context of climate change” and could be “a good climate adaptation” for growers.
But the reality is usually different as the trees require additional irrigation. “You have a climate-adapted plant, but then you irrigate to ensure the high yields needed in a high-price market.”
Producing one kilogram of pistachios requires more than 10,000 liters (2,600 gallons) of water – and most of this comes from additional irrigation. In dry areas, this can cause massive water problems. By comparison, it takes an average of less than 2,800 liters of water to produce one kilogram of peanuts – and about 90% of the water required comes from rainwater.
Moreover, pistachios, like many other agricultural products for which demand has suddenly increased on the world market, are mainly planted in monoculture, Tanzman said. He said this has many negative consequences, such as heavy use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
Even though pistachios handle the heat well, they are affected by the warmer winters brought about by climate change. Trees require periods of cool temperatures to produce flowers – and without flowers, there are no fruits.
Matcha mania squeezes the market
Other food trends like matcha tea are also being negatively impacted. The green, bitter powder has always been distinctive, and even more so now as demand has increased worldwide.
Originally from China, the best quality matcha is now grown in Japan. There, the tea plants are specially shaded before harvesting, which is usually done with hand-guided machines. After being picked, the tea leaves are steamed and aerated, the stem and leaf veins are removed, and then only the leaf pulp is ground.
In Japan, high quality green tea powder is primarily used for traditional tea ceremonies. But because it contains many antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, matcha has become a globally sought-after superfood in recent years, from ready-made matcha lattes to matcha chocolate bars.
According to the German Tea Association, more than 240 tons of matcha were distributed in Germany alone between January and August 2024 – a 240% increase compared to the same period last year. The association says the promotion continues as healthy eating continues to trend. According to international market analysis companies, the global market for matcha is expected to nearly double in the next five to seven years.
Surging demand is already causing shortages. The website of Marukyu Koyamen, one of Japan’s leading tea exporters, said availability of all matcha products is now limited. Among competitors like Ippodo Tea, almost all matcha is sold out.
According to the report of Yuji Yamakita, an independent tea trader in Kyoto, in the Japanese tea market, the purchase price of matcha is almost three times higher than last year, and retail prices have doubled. “The high prices are especially affecting people who perform tea ceremonies and confectionery makers. I heard that some people have stopped drinking matcha or are not drinking it as much as they used to,” Yamakita said.
This is having a particularly negative impact on tea traders serving the domestic Japanese market. Yamakita fears that tea farmers who lack equipment and financial resources will be unable to meet the growing demand and go out of business.
Quinoa craze destroys agricultural land
Another example of negative global food trend consequences is quinoa. Pseudo-cereals originate from 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 increasingly consumed.
Tanzman said that in the two main producing countries, Peru and Bolivia, prices rose so rapidly that the local population could barely afford their food.
The environment also suffered damage. According to the German development organization Welthungerhilfe, traditionally, agricultural land in the Andes is left fallow for up to seven years for soil recovery. Due to high demand, many farmers reduced the cultivation period to only one year. This often results in the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy machinery, which compact the soil.
Additionally, areas not suitable for farming were also developed, said Markus Wolter, an agriculture and nutrition expert at the Catholic development organization Miserer. An example is a desert-like, bush-covered area in the highlands of Bolivia where llamas were formerly kept.
“It’s too dry there for large-scale cultivation of crops like quinoa,” Wolter said. “It went well for a few years because there was enough rain at the beginning of the boom – but for several years now, that rain has failed to occur.”
Plowing the soil for farming also had a negative impact. “In this climate with strong winds, plowing should not be done at all because the little fertile soil there can quickly evaporate.” This makes it even more difficult to return to animal husbandry after quinoa farming, he said, because the pastures are less fertile.
When the hype is over, what’s left?
Whether it’s pistachios, matcha, quinoa, or whatever food trend comes next, fair trade organizations advise growers not to make themselves economically dependent on a single agricultural commodity. This means growing crops not only for the global market, but also for local markets, said Claudia Bruck, director of Fairtrade Germany. This way, manufacturers can make money even when the craze subsides and prices fall.
Brook said, “The idea is to move away from monoculture and, typically, grow two rows of coffee and one row of beans. This makes the soil healthier and enables farmers to grow their own food. And then you can also grow mangoes for the international market.”
Not only farmers, but also those starting and promoting food trends, need to think and act more sustainably, Tanzman said. “When you push something like this, you really have a responsibility for this kind of trend and you have to think it through from beginning to end – and not just focus on selling as much as possible.”
This article was originally written in German.