Unsaturated halal market promising large revenues

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

This September photo shows visitors at an Islamic goods fair in Belgium. AA photo

The halal market is a growing one with a potential well within the multitrillion dollar range, but only a small portion of it is utilized, according to World Halal Council’s (WHC) Turkish chairman Hüseyin Kami Büyüközer.

Halal food, which refers to goods approved by the Islamic code, is a $860 billion market spread across the world and this figure rises even higher to $2.1 trillion when textiles, cosmetics and medical products are factored into the mix, said Büyüközer, who also chairs Gimdes, Turkey’s local halal-licensing authority. “Unfortunately only some 14 percent of this potential is materialized,” he said. This refers to somewhere between $150 and $200 in food products. There is a large space there,”
The Turkish Standards Institute, which started granting halal food licenses in July 2011, has given 117 documents to 63 separate companies so far.

Gimdes, an older actor whose licenses are expected in around 50 countries, has certified products of 300 companies since 2009. These companies exported $10 billion worth goods until the end of 2011, said Büyüközer, adding that he is expecting the figure to reach $17 billion by the end of 2012.

Halal certification has “opened gates” for the Turkish processed meat company Namet, said foreign trade executive Nihal Kayar.

Kayar forecasted the world’s Muslim population would reach between 25 percent and 27 in 2030 from today’s 20. “This is why the halal market is a rapidly growing one and why we are looking to become stronger in this market with halal certification.”

The company aims at increasing exports’ share in its 595 million Turkish Liras budget to 25 percent from today’s moderate 2 percent.

Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, the Middle East and Arab nations are insistent about the certification, poultry firm Beyza Piliç’s General Coordinator Necmettin Çalışkan told Anatolia news agency. He also said that a demand from consumers would grow the local market. Rival Erpiliç’s Güney Tuna added Libya, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Bosnia to these emerging markets.