News From : DagangHalal.com (02 Apr 2010)
KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) — There is a great potential to further develop the halal markets and industries in European countries, says Malaysian Ambassador to the European Union, Datuk Hussein Haniff.
“The halal industry in Europe is currently valued at about US$66 billion (US$1=RM3.22) and is expected to expand by 20 to 25 per cent in the next decade,” he said in his address at the 4th International Halal Food Conference 2010 held in Brussels, Belgium recently.
In a statement released here on Thursday, he said the European household income, Muslim and non-Muslim, had increased steadily over the last 30 years and opportunities for “freezer-to-fryer” products had also increased due to the population’s busy lives.
“In this regard, the potential halal market size is increasing but the halal food products are still relatively small in number and thus the market remains mainly untapped,” he said.
Hussein said Europe has 51.2 million Muslims with France having the largest Muslim population of 5.86 million people.
He said the potential demand for halal products in Europe could be attributed to the fact that Europe has the third largest Muslim population after Asia and Africa.
“Also, the purchasing power among the Muslim community in Europe has also increased due to a higher level of education and living standard while the awareness of halal products has also increased.
“By virtue of halal products being regarded as health products has also increased its consumption among the mainstream, regardless of their religious affiliation, making Europe a major consumer market for halal products,” he said.
Hussein said research has also shown that consumers were willing to pay premium prices for products of better quality and higher safety standards as well as product integrity with halal assurance, whereby 75 per cent of the consumers were willing to pay five to 10 per cent above the market price.
In terms of regulation, he said, “since Brussels is the place where 65 per cent of EU regulations are formulated, we also have to look into EU regulations with regard to halal products”.
He said all food in the EU supply chain and market must be safe, traceable and follow transparent process.
“The regulations stipulate that food is not allowed to be on the value chain if it is proven unsafe in that it is detrimental to health and unfit for human consumption,” he said.
— BERNAMA