Home » Expert: Push Non-Meat Halal Industry

Expert: Push Non-Meat Halal Industry

News From : DagangHalal.com (23 Nov 2009)

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s halal meat industry is not likely to take off in a big way in the international market and the country would be better off selling its non-meat halal products such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and Islamic financial services, says Oxford professor.

The country’s meat industry, apart from being hardly able to meet local demand, also fell short of international quality standards, said Prof Dr Linda M Scott of Oxford University’s Said Business School.

According to the marketing expert who has been involved in a year-long research on the global halal market, meat export was not the strength of Malaysia’s halal industry.

“Malaysia imports most meats and exports some chicken, but its chicken parts have difficulty meeting international health standards,” she told 28 senior government executives at the Malaysia Custom Executive Education programme on Branding and Mar­keting Strategy yesterday.

However, she said the research findings indicated that Malaysia’s strength in the international halal industry was that it was ahead in expanding “halalisation” into other products and services, particularly pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

“Malaysia has already done a good bit of thinking about what halal could mean. It has developed a lot of non-meat products that fit the notion of being halal,” she said.

She added that while most nations that delved into halal certification were not emphasising on expanding into other halal products, Malaysia was already thinking about halal certification in vitamins, soap, toothpaste and other personal care items.

“Malaysia could trump other nations in as far as other kinds of halal goods are concerned,” she said.

She stressed that by focusing on Islamic financial services and non-meat products, Malaysia would have the advantage because it was already well-positioned to enter these largely untapped international markets for halal products.

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