The extraordinary demand for a chocolate bar that went viral on TikTok has been blamed for a global shortage of pistachios.
Dubai chocolate, which is filled with crispy knafeh, pistachio cream and tahini spread, was launched in 2021 by Dubai-based firm, Fix Dessert Chocolatier.
But the sweet treat really took off after food influencer Maria Vehera shared a TikTok video of herself sampling it.
The video picked up more than 120 million views and suddenly everyone wanted a bite.
Brands including Lindt, Nestle and Lidl quickly jumped on the bandwagon, and started making their own versions, with Lindt seeing their copy selling out within just 72 minutes on TikTok shop.
Buyers eager to get their hands on the bars also flocked to supermarket stockists across the world, with at least one retailer having to set a limit on how many you could buy at a time.
Now the demand for Dubai chocolate and its many copies is being blamed for a global shortage of pistachios.
Giles Hacking of nut trading firm CG Hacking, told the Financial Times the pistachio industry had become ‘tapped out’ due to chocolatiers making mass purchases of the kernels.
Iran, who is the second world’s largest pistachio producer, exported 40% more pistachios to the UAE from September 2024 to March 2025 than it did over the full 12 months before that, the MailOnline reports.
The massive demand has come at a time when global stocks are already low after a disappointing harvest in the US, the world’s largest exporter, last year.
Meanwhile, Charles Jandreau, general manager for Prestat Group, owner of some of the UK’s most luxurious chocolate brands, said that ‘no one’ had been ‘ready’ for the spike in demand for procure kataifi, the shredded Middle Eastern pastry used in the cream.
Johannes Läderach, chief executive of Swiss chocolatier Läderach, said they had been ‘overwhelmed with the demand for Dubai chocolate’.
He said: ‘We’ve launched them a few months ago, and its just not stopping, it’s just going through the roof.’
As the frenzy for the chocolate bar continues, the makers of the original version, British-Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda and her husband Yezen Alani, have criticised the brands trying to copy them.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Yezen said it was ‘very frustrating because people are trying knockoffs, which damages our brand’.
He said their bar was a luxury, handmade product, unlike the mass produced cheaper-made alternatives.
‘It’s all handmade, every single design is done by hand,’ he said.
‘We use premium ingredients and the process is not like making other bars – you’ve got the baking, moulding the chocolate to the design and with the filling itself, even the pistachios are hand-picked and processed.’
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