THE HALAL MARKET MOVEMENT
WHERE IS THE HALAL MARKET HEADING? WE SEE IT MOVING IN FOUR DIRECTIONS. HERE ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE REVISED KASEHDIA PRESENTATION AT THE WORLD HALAL FORUM IN MAY.
O
ver the last two years, there have been extraordinary developments happening in various parts of the world. One of the proofs of this development was the content and participants of the World Halal Forum in May. The international event saw active participation from senior representatives from some of the world’s major corporations covering the full spectrum of the Halal industry value chain. Among them were the world’s largest food manufacturing corporation (Nestle), the world’s leading restaurant chain (McDonalds), the world’s number one and number two retail chains (Tesco and Carrefour), Europe’s largest and the world’s third largest port (Port of Rotterdam), one of South East Asia’s top 10 ports (Westports), the world’s second biggest shipping company (MISC), South East Asia’s biggest investment bank (CIMB), India’s biggest meat exporter (Allanasons), world’s number one supplier of Halal airline food (LSG-Sky Chefs-Brahims) and UAE’s leading Halal food producer (Al Islami). In addition, the WHF had some of the Halal industry’s pioneers from around the world in the fields of food production, Halal science, certification, product security, Halal animal feeds, branding and media. The participant list is in itself an eloquent statement of the start of the coming of age of the Halal industry. The past two years have seen a dramatic increase in the profile and focus of the Halal market, and this trend is expected to continue and develop over the coming years. HALAL MARKETS From a market perspective, the traditional major target markets remain in Asia. However, there are influential developing Halal markets in the UK, Europe and the USA with significant market size. The developing Halal markets of Europe and the US play an interesting role, because they are markets that also play defining roles in other markets around the world. As the dynamics within the Muslim world change, and globalisation trends continue to shape people’s tastes, habit and spending patterns across the world, we are likely to see moves in the developing Halal markets having increasingly influential roles in the established markets of the Middle East and Asia. In terms of Halal product, a leading player in the Halal market said recently, “You need a good product, proper certification, and the rest is marketing.” Marketing Halal on its unique benefits and qualities has not even started. Like Islamic banking, Halal products have been targeted primarily, and naturally, at the Muslim
REGION 2005 MUSLIM POP PER CAPITA FOOD HALAL FOOD MARKET Region Value
2005 Muslim Population
Per capita food Halal Food expenditure Market p/a USD Millions USD
Africa West Asia South Central Asia South East Asia China Europe (inc Russia) N. America S. America Oceania
461.77m 195m 584.8m 266.37m 39.1m 51.19m 8.26m 1.64m .35m
250 570 300 350 175 1,250 1,750 500 1,500
Total
1,565m
115,443 111,150 175,440 93,230 5,865 63,988 14,455 820 525 US$ 580,915
Source: www.islamicpopulation.com, Euromonitor
consumer. But, as we are all continuing to discover, the appeal of Halal is widespread; it has universal appeal; Halal stands on its own merits; merits which, as we speak now, have hardly begun to be utilised and realised from a marketing perspective. Take a look at the Halal’s market neighbours. Market values such as healthy, organic, natural, environmentally friendly, non-cruelty to animals, ethnic, fair trade and even kosher have all established their place on the retail shelves as value-added marketing propositions. Halal is at home among these values. Halal overlaps these values, even encompasses these values. Halal, in its real meaning, is still waiting to be discovered. MARKET NEIGHBOURS Halal product offerings are still very limited. A look at the American
kosher market will give us some idea of how Halal can develop as it becomes more mainstream. The US kosher market, with a Jewish population of 5 to 6 million, has been valued in excess of 100 billion USD annually. There is a range of 86,000 certified kosher products on the supermarket shelves. However, in Mintel’s recent survey in the US shows that only 15 per cent of the kosher product customers are Jewish. Fifty five per cent buy kosher because it is perceived to be healthier, 38 per cent are vegetarian, 24 per cent want dairy-free, and 16 per cent are Muslim. This means there are more Muslims than Jews buying kosher products in the US because there are only 1,000 Halal certified products available, and most are not available through the mainstream retail outlets.
38 THE HALAL JOURNAL
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