There’s something rather French about the whole affair, a touch of charm, a whiff of pride, and the faint suspicion that even an apple can make a fashion statement if it’s wearing the correct label.
The European Union, in cahoots with France’s Interfel, has launched a three-year courtship across the Gulf, in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, to convince locals that the crunch of a French apple belongs beside their morning gahwa.
They’re calling it a campaign. It feels more like seduction.
A Crop Worth Flirting With
France’s orchards have been busy. The 2025 harvest produced 1.485 million tonnes of apples, up four per cent on last year — and the names roll off the tongue like a wine list: Gala, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Juliet, Rubis Gold, Candine, Joya, Kissabel.
Each one, naturally, has its own personality. The Pink Lady is the extrovert in the fruit bowl; the Granny Smith, sharp as a Parisienne retort; the Gala, eternally agreeable.
The French are sending them east not just to sell fruit, but to export a little of that old-world confidence that food should be beautiful and slightly opinionated.
Grown Green, Sold Clean
For a nation that invented terroir, the French take pride in how things grow. Their orchards have spent 25 years trimming chemical use, pampering pollinators and championing biodiversity.
“We’re delighted to build on our long friendship with the Gulf,” said Daniel Sauvaitre, a Charente grower and Interfel president. “European apples continue to resonate because of their exceptional taste, nutritional value, and the eco-friendly orchards from which they’re grown.”
It’s not so much marketing as philosophy proof that sustainability can wear good cologne.
The Apple Roadshow
Over the next three years, 360 in-store tastings will bloom across Gulf supermarkets. Expect baskets gleaming like jewellery counters and staff urging shoppers to have a bite, you’ll see.
There will also be live cooking shows, with chefs in crisp whites slicing, sautéing, and flambéing, proving that a Pink Lady can hold its own against cardamom, honey, and pistachio.
And because the French never do things halfway, influencers will join in, cameras poised, filters ready, and the humble apple recast as a lifestyle accessory.
Teaching the Taste-Makers
Interfel is also training the people behind the counters, the chefs, retailers, and distributors who decide what goes on the region’s plates. More than 250 professionals have already graduated from Apple School; more will follow.
They’re learning the difference between tart and tannic, firm and floral, how to describe fruit with the confidence of a sommelier. It’s known that the French insist on improving sales, and they’re probably right.
From Paris to Gulfood
Next stop: Gulfood Dubai, the culinary catwalk of the Middle East. Here, amid the scent of truffles and the gleam of stainless steel, France’s growers will strut their stuff.
Buyers will discuss logistics, and growers will discuss lineage. Someone will mention bees, and someone else will mention bouquet. Everyone will nod gravely, then bite into a slice and forget their argument.
That’s the power of a good apple; it ends conversations by occupying the mouth.
The Subtext: Business is Blooming
Behind the rustic romance sits a clear-eyed trade play. Gulf consumers are increasingly choosy, demanding traceable, ethically grown produce. The EU’s campaign ensures that French apples arrive fresher and with a story — one of provenance, care, and a comforting sense of continuity.
France, never shy about linking commerce with culture, sees the Gulf as fertile ground: a region where hospitality is an art and presentation a competitive sport.
As Sauvaitre put it, “We aim to create more moments for people to enjoy the diversity of our apples… and to strengthen the connection between our orchards in France and the tables of families across the Gulf.”
It’s part business plan, part love letter.
Why It Matters
At a time when food miles and climate footprints dominate the conversation, the French pitch is refreshingly human. Apples are democratic, don’t intimidate, travel well, and remind us that sustainability can be simple: plant carefully, harvest honestly, and share generously.
And in a Gulf market that loves a success story, the idea of fruit with a family tree stretching back to Normandy is oddly appealing.
A Classic French Ending
So, what we have here isn’t just trade. It’s a theatre. It’s France doing what it does best: turning the ordinary into the exquisite and the everyday into an export.
There’s an unspoken moral too: you can’t rush an apple. You grow it, you polish it, and when it’s perfect, you send it off to charm the world.
This, when you think of it, is more or less how the French operate in every field.
By Bridget Gomez – (c) 2025
Read time: 5 minutes
About the Writer
Bridget has never been one to sit still. Of Portuguese heritage, she first trained as a nurse. She threw herself into work at the Commonwealth Veteran Affairs Repatriation Hospital, tending to old soldiers with stories almost as colourful as her own would become. It was rewarding, steady work — but wanderlust has a louder voice than routine.
So, she swapped starched uniforms for a backpack and set off on a twelve-month gallop around the globe. Along the way, she scribbled in journals, capturing the dust, the laughter, the odd missed train, and the occasional glass of wine too many. Those notebooks soon became a travel blog, her way of reliving and sharing the journeys with anyone willing to read.
Eventually, Bridget stumbled across Global Travel Media and, in her words, “the rest is history.” Now she writes with the same mix of heart and mischief that fuelled her travels.
