W o r l d H a l a l F o r u m E URO P E 2 0 0 9
World Halal Forum Message
Assalamu’alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Welcome to the first ever regional World Halal Forum.
In May this year, at the World Halal Forum (WHF) 2009, now an annual event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, themed ‘Achieving Global Halal Integrity’, 1,200 participants ranging from government leaders, ambassadors, trade counsellors, industry experts, academicians, scholars and delegates from over 60 countries gathered, deliberated and voted to resolve some crucial issues. The Kuala Lumpur meet marked two very important milestones in the history of the World Halal Forum. For the very first time, WHF held two separate streams – the main stream and the IHI Alliance standards stream – this enabled detailed focused attention and discussion among delegates who were able to choose the subject matters that were most close to their heart. Secondly, the draft global halal standards were unveiled for public and industry review and deliberation by the host of the event (also the host for this regional World Halal Forum -Europe), the International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHI Alliance). Among the resolutions passed at the 4th World Halal Forum, one was to extend the prestigious WHF to areas outside Malaysia to continue the deliberations and make it more inclusive. For a start, we are now holding this event in Europe this year. Keen interest has been expressed and advance planning and negotiations are already under way to hold similar regional WHF in North America, South America, Middle East, Africa, and Australia. The global halal food industry was worth over EUR455 billion in 2009. It is an industry dominated historically by non-Muslim countries that have, over many years, had a clear and distinct advantage through their superior marketing and distribution channels as well as production efficiency. Halal is a global brand that has gone mainstream. This means that the Muslim consumer base is expanding rapidly to include increasingly non-Muslims. Halal is now an open market with a potential consumer reach of more than 730 million people today in Europe alone, and 900 million people in ten years. In response to this demand and market potential that has not really been fully tapped, we are here today at the World Forum Convention Centre, The Hague, with the theme ‘Halal Potential – A Regional Focus’. It is a perfect platform to conduct business networking between speakers, panellists and participants of the event to harness the trade opportunities in this industry. We are confident that together we can realise this industry’s full potential and expand its market through deliberations and discussions held over the next two days, Insya Allah. We extend a very warm welcome to all to the World Halal Forum Europe 2009. JazakAllah Khair
EXECUTIVE REVIEW - 5
ER-EURO-LO.indd 5
11/5/09 11:29:12 PM