News From : DagangHalal.com (15 Mar 2009)
The West Midlands is poised to become the European hub of a multi-billion pound industry that could see regional farmers annually supplying thousands of tonnes of halal meat to Muslim communities throughout the world. Livestock producers in Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire could tap into new consumer markets for halal meat in Europe and the Middle East following the approval of the UK’s first “farm to fork” traceability system. The UK halal market is worth around £2.8 billion. There are two million Muslims in the UK but according to the UK Food Safety Authority, there are 6 million consumers of halal meat nationwide. The new tagging and online certification system, pioneered in the West Midlands, is devised to meet stringent halal guarantee demands required by Muslim holy law and covers animal welfare, animal husbandry, livestock transport, halal slaughter and food processing. Similar to the UK food industry’s Red Tractor quality assurance scheme, the halal standard has been introduced after research consultants undertook a two-year-long pilot scheme, the West Midlands Qurbani Project, on behalf of Advantage West Midlands and the West Midlands Minority Ethnic Business Forum. Michael Oakes, board member for rural affairs at Advantage West Midlands, said: “Farmers have taken some hard knocks in the past few years, such as foot and mouth, BSE, outbreaks of avian bird flu and bluetongue and restrictions on sales abroad. Now, for the red meat industry especially, the Qurbani Project has opened up major opportunities in the global market for halal meat products. Source from: https://www.farminguk.com/news/United-Kingdom