In the UAE, your soda is basically high-sugar until proven otherwise.

Since January 2026, the UAE has been taxing sweetened drinks based on how much sugar they actually contain.

The system has four categories:

🥤 8g+ per 100 ml: AED 1.09 excise tax per litre

🥤 5–8g: AED 0.79 per litre

🥤 Below 5g: AED 0

🥤 Artificially sweetened drinks: AED 0 in qualifying cases

But here’s the interesting market-access part.

Importers and producers need an Emirates Conformity Certificate confirming the drink’s sugar and sweetener content, backed by testing from an accredited laboratory.

No certificate?

The authorities can treat the product as belonging to the highest-sugar category until you prove otherwise.

So a low-sugar drink can effectively receive high-sugar tax treatment not because of what’s inside the bottle — but because of what’s missing from the compliance file.

It’s a great example of something we see constantly in market access:

Product characteristics determine what should happen.

Documentation determines what actually happens at the border.

And suddenly a conformity certificate isn’t just paperwork. It affects pricing, margins and whether your market-entry economics still make sense.

That’s why regulatory requirements belong in the go-to-market conversation much earlier than most companies think.

#MarketAccess #RegulatoryCompliance #InternationalExpansion #UAE #Expio