8
Chapter 2 – THE HALAL SECTOR
Figure 3: OIC leading importing markets of unprocessed meat and poultry products (US$ billion, 2014)
All OIC
15.3
Saudi Arabia
2.5
Egypt
1.7
U.A. Emirates
1.5
Indonesia Malaysia Iraq
1.1 0.9 0.8
Kuwait
0.7
Jordan
0.6
Lebanon
0.5
Qatar
0.5
Rest of OIC
4.4
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation The OIC market is a useful means of assessing the size of the Halal market for poultry. Processed poultry exports to the OIC countries totalled US$ 5.5 billion in 2014, led by Brazil (US$ 2.9 billion), the United States (US$ 610 million), Turkey (US$ 512 million), France (US$ 400 million) and China (US$ 149 million). Leading OIC importing countries are Saudi Arabia (US$ 1.48 billion), Iraq (US$ 688 million), the United Arab Emirates (US$ 674 million), Kuwait (US$ 286 million) and Benin (US$ 244 million). GCC imports for this category amounted to US$ 2.9 billion in 2014 with a 125% increase over 10 years, and made up over 50% of the total OIC imports Saudi Arabia accounted for 50% of the GCC import total. Approximately, 10% of all exported processed poultry products in 2014 went to the GCC countries, a significant figure given their relatively small population, and no doubt boosted to some extent by the annual Hajj (pilgrimage) and Umrah visitors.
Processed foods (meat, poultry, seafood) OIC imports for this category show a stronger 10-year growth rate of 305%, from US$ 540 million in 2005 to US$ 2.19 billion in 2014. This probably reflects the impact of increased purchasing power and changing dietary habits of a younger generation that is more likely to purchase processed or pre-cooked food
products and other convenience foods, and is more likely to be influenced by international trends and advertising. Saudi Arabia continues to head the list of importers at US$ 269 million in 2014, followed by the United Arab Emirates (US$ 202 million), Egypt (US$ 193 million), Libya (US$ 163 million), Malaysia (US$ 133 million), Kazakhstan (US$ 122 million), Lebanon (US$ 105 million) and Jordan (US$ 87 million). Thailand heads the list of processed-food exporters to the OIC, with exports valued at US$ 791 million in 2014, followed by China (US$ 341 million), Morocco (US$ 208 million), Brazil (US$ 134 million) and Indonesia and the Russian Federation (both US$ 114 million). Malaysia, Jordan, France, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates round out the top 11, with exports ranging from US$ 72 million to US$ 51 million. Thailand’s strength in this category is due to a specific policy over the past decade to increase processed-food exports to halal markets. Efforts to gear up the export capabilities of Thai SMEs have certainly borne fruit. The past decade shows a 230% increase in Thailand’s exports of processed foods to the OIC. Thailand also heads countries exporting processed foods in this category to the GCC region, with a 10-year growth rate of 280% to US$ 213 million in exports in 2014, far ahead of Brazil (US$ 64 million), Indonesia (US$ 59 million) and Malaysia (US$ 47 million).