2nd September, 2026
Ahmed Atya, Zahrawi Group: “It’s based on criticality, not cost”
Sr. Group Supply Chain Director, Zahrawi
Ahmed brings two decades in healthcare supply chain, importing cold-chain and heavily regulated medical material from China, India, the US and Europe — a sector where a stockout isn’t just a business problem, it’s a patient-care problem.
On what makes a supplier stand out beyond price: Ahmed looks for suppliers with multiple manufacturing locations across different countries, so that disruption in one region doesn’t halt supply. Understanding a supplier’s production capacity limits matters too — is Zahrawi already close to being their biggest client, and what happens if demand grows further? In life sciences specifically, response time and agility around quality control are critical: an 18-month-plus QC delay on already-produced stock is not acceptable when patients are waiting. Regulatory compliance is non-negotiable — every GCC country has its own governance framework, and any supplier unwilling to meet it simply can’t operate in the market.
On decision-making during disruption: This is where Ahmed’s central message landed hardest: during the recent turbulence, sourcing decisions were driven by criticality, not cost. Shipments were rerouted mid-transit, rerouted again, and sometimes parked in a different country entirely while the team figured out the safest path. In some cases, Zahrawi paid more for freight than the value of the goods themselves — a deliberate trade-off to avoid failing patients and communities who depend on continuous supply, even though it came at a cost to the business.
On alternative routing: When sea freight through congested ports became unreliable, Zahrawi moved shipments by road — including from Germany and Turkey — despite the complexity of crossing multiple borders and the limited number of providers willing to handle that kind of route. In normal times, air freight would be the obvious (and cheaper) alternative; the current environment made road transport a necessary, if reluctant, option.
On commercial terms: Much of Zahrawi’s business runs on long-term government contracts, which the company continues to honor — even at a loss in some cases — because continuity of supply to the healthcare system is a commitment that has to hold regardless of market conditions. Ahmed’s ask of exporters and partners: don’t walk away when things get difficult, and don’t take advantage of the situation to inflate prices unreasonably. He noted that some governments stepped in with support packages to help offset freight costs during the worst of the disruption — and cautioned that suppliers who exploited the crisis to overcharge will lose that business permanently once things normalize.
Closing takeaway: Coordination and collaboration between all parties — not opportunism — is what supply chain resilience actually requires going forward. In Ahmed’s words, this is no longer a “privilege for efficiency,” it’s a mandate.