Agriculture Health Industry News Trade

Turkey Gears Up Secure Share in Huge Halal Food Market

Istanbul, Turkey | April 25, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

Halal products are in place in most countries with an Islamic majority but also in China, Thailand, India, Europe, the United States and South Korea

Halal products are in place in most countries with an Islamic majority but also in China, Thailand, India, Europe, the United States and South Korea

The Food Auditing and Certification Research Association (GİMDES) will for the first time in Turkey soon begin issuing halal food certificates, bringing the country one step closer to winning a share from the giant global market for halal food — food prepared in accordance with Islamic law, which has reached $2 trillion in size.

Muhammad Zein Nasution, vice director for certification at the Indonesian Council of Ulamas (MUI), recently gave presentations on halal certification procedures and requirements to GİMDES officials. Halal food certification was first launched in Singapore, a predominantly non-Muslim country. The halal food concept has gained in importance in recent years, and halal products are in high demand worldwide. The certification system has also been developed in Western countries. Turkey has, however, lacked such a system, and GİMDES is looking to change this.

The 2nd International Halal Food Conference began in İstanbul’s Feshane conference hall on Saturday with the attendance of experts from 12 countries. Speaking at the inauguration of the meeting, GİMDES Chairman Hüseyin Büyüközer said they had been working to introduce halal food certification in Turkey for the past 25 years and are glad to have made such progress.

Büyüközer said four Turkish firms have already applied to receive certificates and that they expect to issue these certificates as soon as possible, underlining that Turkish consumers have long been looking forward to such a development. He said the entire production process of a food item “from farm to kitchen” will be compatible with halal food requirements. Halal standards also regulate the packaging, transportation, labeling and logistics of foods. Additionally, preparation procedures are analyzed to ensure their conformance with halal standards.

Underlining that there are different types of halal food certificates issued in 60 countries today, the GİMDES head said the conference aims to unite all Muslim entrepreneurs under one single roof and introduce one valid certification system. “This issue interests some 2 billion Muslims in the world,” he added. He said Turkey has the chance to compensate for losses in exports due to shrinking demand in EU and Russian markets by entering new markets with halal food certificates.

Some 24 speakers from the US, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Kyrgyzstan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of South Africa were scheduled to give speeches at the İstanbul meeting, which was due to end on Sunday.

Seeing the potential, even non-Muslim countries such as Vietnam began taking important steps to produce foodstuffs in conformity with the standards. In 2007, the Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) stepped up initiatives to meet increasing demand for halal food both globally and domestically.

Halal Standard is used mainly for food, but also for cosmetic and cleaning products. It is in place in most countries with an Islamic majority but also in China, Thailand, India, Europe, the United States and South Korea. Experts believe the Halal product market is worth $150 billion and will grow to $500 billion by 2010. There are more than 50 halal standards in around 20 countries. The market for Halal certificates alone is said to be worth $240 billion.

D-8 Organisation urges the memberstates to underline the importance of halal food market, at least initially within D-8 itself. The halal food sector is indeed a promising sector not only for moslem majority countries, but also non-moslem majority ones such as New Zealand, USA, and Canada. Along similar lines, D-8 Secretary General Dipo Alam reminded the wish of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi during the D-8 Summit in Bali, May 2006, who encourage memberstates to seek further opportunities in this bright sector.

Read Also

Rate this article:
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
Print This Post

Share your thoughts on this story. Please increase the credibility of your post by including your name and city, and by demonstrating respect for others' opinions. Comments will not appear immediately; all comments are moderated and will be posted in order of submission.