Dubai had no Supermarkets at the beginning of 1970s
Food was either purchased in the markets or from a local Grocery Store
Grocery Stores sold packaged or frozen foods but very little fresh food
Stores Owners would often turn off their freezers at night to save on power bills
Chest Freezer
Fresh eggs were non existent in 1971 Dubai unless you owned chickens.
Most Grocery Stores only sold imported pickled eggs in jars. Pickled eggs looked like eggs but certainly didn't taste like eggs!
Maybe the more enterprising could find fresh eggs for sale outside Dubai in, say, Dhaid or one of the farming areas
Mostly people in Dubai lived life without fresh eggs back then, that is until...
A British Expatriate capitalized on fresh egg scarcity in Dubai.
His brother owned a chicken farm near Heathrow Airport in London.
Between them they arranged for fresh eggs to be flown to Dubai
by BOAC's newly introduced daily VC10 service from London to Dubai.
These imported fresh eggs were initially sold only to the Expatriate's friends but news of fresh eggs being available in Dubai spread by word of mouth amongst the British Expatriate community.
Soon these fresh eggs were being sold to the Expatriate's friends and "friends of friends" so more fresh eggs were imported.
Although BOAC's VC10 flew daily to Dubai, these fresh eggs were shipped irregularly.
"Fresh Egg Seekers" had to know when the fresh eggs arrived in Dubai and where they could lay hands on the precious fresh eggs.
Expatriate sold his eggs from his Apartment so knowing the Apartment's location was a key piece of information.
Growing demand meant fresh egg sales were often rationed - sometimes to a tray of eggs (2 dozen)- sometimes half a tray. Then Dubai's larger Grocery Stores, such as KM Brother's Supermarket, began airfreighting in fresh eggs from Europe.
Before long fresh eggs were freely available in Supermarkets and Grocery Stores.
As Dubai's population grew so did the consumption of fresh eggs.
It was not until 1978 that UAE's first Poultry Farm was established by Al Ahelia soon to be followed by other Poultry Farms. Often there were complaints these "locally grown" fresh eggs tasted of fish!
Local Chicken Farms often used fish meal to feed their chickens so imported eggs continued to be popular.
As late as 2013 fresh eggs were imported from countries such as Ireland for sale in Dubai's many Supermarkets.
Today UAE imports and exports fresh eggs.
UAE now has a major industry producing eggs and chicken meat.