News From : DagangHalal.com (05 May 2009)
Malaysian exports of halal food products to the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member countries, is estimated to rise to US$900 million this year, with increasing demand.
In 2007, Malaysian exports to the OIC member countries recorded about US$640 million, the Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said today.
He said among the OIC countries, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are the four largest open economies, with a substantially large external trade volume.
“While intra-OIC trade is still low, I am very confident that given the higher awareness level and growing demand for halal products and services globally, Malaysia will register a significant increase in trade in the future,” he said in his keynote address at the opening of the Fourth World Halal Forum (WHF) here today.
The WHF 2009, organised by KasehDia Sdn Bhd, is an annual forum which gathers specialists’ and experts from various industries.This year it has attracted over 1,500 delegates.
Mustapa said the size of the halal food market for Malaysia is estimated to be US$8.2 billion this year.
He also highlighted that trade in halal products is one of the fastest growing business sectors in the country.
According to Mustapa, the existing market size of global halal food is huge.
“But research indicates that global trade of halal food products represents less than 10 percent of the market.
“The current global Muslim population stands at 1.8 billion.This represents 28 percent of the total world population. However, the total global halal food market is significantly lower at 16 percent compared to the size of the global food market, meaning there is a significant gap.
“Among the reasons for this is that most Muslim countries, especially those in Asia and Africa, still rely on basic and non-tradeable food products which are largely supplied locally and not internationally traded.
“Besides that, each halal market is not similar and fragmented by ethnicity, location, income and a few other determinants, making it difficult to see better growth in the global halal food market,” Mustapa said.
However, he pointed out that the global halal food market which is estimated to be worth US$635 billion, had high potential not only within Muslim but also non-Muslim countries.
He said there was a substantial increase in halal food from the non-Muslim countries and this is reflected in the European market alone, at US$67 billion.
Mustapa added that a strong partnership and collaboration between OIC members was needed to ensure Muslim countries benefit from the growth in the global halal market with the gap being narrowed further.
Source from : BERNAMA
