Halal Goes Global

Chapter 2 – THE HALAL SECTOR 7
Key countries
The 10 biggest food markets in the OIC countries, based
on 2013 figures 5 , are outlined in Figure 3. However, many
of these countries are also food producers with an active
domestic market, and are not necessarily automatic target
markets for international trade and exports.
It is useful to divide the market into some key sub-sectors, such as
meat and poultry, live animals, non-meat foods and processed
foods, to see where there is significant trade potential.
Meat and live animals
Assuming that all meat and live animals exported to OIC
countries are halal, we can determine the major halal
exporters in this sector.
The top 10 countries exporting meat and live cattle,
sheep and goats to the OIC are: Brazil (US$ 4.7 billion);
India (US$ 2.1 billion); Australia (US$ 1.6 billion); United
States (US$ 1.2 billion); France (US$ 800 million); Turkey
(US$ 500 million); New Zealand (US$ 500 million); Netherlands
(US$ 200 million); Pakistan (US$ 200 million); Germany
(US$ 200 million).
It is worth noting that these figures cover a wide variation in
quality. For example, India’s halal meat exports are primarily
buffalo meat, whereas Australia’s exports are from highgrade
premium cattle serving the top end of the market. Live
animal exports have come under considerable pressure
from animal welfare groups that are concerned about the
stress inflicted on animals during long sea voyages, as well
as how they are treated on arrival. Animal-handling practices
in importing countries often fall short of the expected
standards in producing nations such as Australia, an issue
that has caused friction between exporters and importers in
some instances.
Unprocessed meat and
poultry products
OIC imports of halal meat and poultry products reached
US$ 15.3 billion in 2014, with Saudi Arabia accounting
for US$ 2.5 billion, followed by Egypt (US$ 1.7 billion),
the United Arab Emirates (US$ 1.4 billion), Indonesia
(US$ 1.2 billion), Malaysia (US$ 950 million), Iraq (US$ 790
million), Kuwait (US$ 680 million), Jordan (US$ 610 million),
Lebanon (US$ 540 million), and Oman (US$ 510 million) 6 .
Major growth in all 10 importing countries was consistent
over a 10-year period, ranging from 103% growth in Kuwait
to 495% growth in Indonesia. OIC imports for this product
group grew 227% in the past decade.
Figure 2: Major OIC food markets
Country
Size (US$ billion)
Indonesia 190
Turkey 168
Pakistan 108
Iran 97
Egypt 95
Bangladesh 60
Saudi Arabia 53
Nigeria 38
Iraq 35
Algeria 35
Within the OIC, the GCC continues to be a significant
meat and poultry importing region with US$ 6 billion of
imports in 2014. Saudi Arabia (US$ 2.5 billion) and the
United Arab Emirates (US$ 1.4 billion) accounted for 66%
of this total. The GCC region showed a 150% increase in
these imports over the past decade, and continues to be
an attractive market for exporters. All of these importing
countries showed consistent growth in the last decade for
unprocessed meat and poultry products.
Poultry
The market for poultry and processed poultry products is a
significant one in the halal sector, due to its reach, popularity and
relatively cheap price. It is also a sector with evolving parameters
as issues of feed, handling, stunning and slaughter methods vary
widely, and are also the subject of discussion and controversy
(such as mechanical versus hand slaughter methods).
While poultry exports to OIC member countries is a measure
of halal trade, an unmeasured, yet significant, volume of
halal chicken goes into the mainstream markets without any
halal labelling.
Global market
The global market for poultry, both halal and mainstream
produce (including live, chilled, frozen as well as processed
products) amounted to US$ 31.1 billion in 2014, with a 10-
year growth rate of 115%. This comprises US$ 28.1 billion
for processed products and an additional US$ 3 billion in
live, chilled and frozen birds.
Leading global exporters of processed poultry products
are Brazil (US$ 7 billion), the United States (US$ 4.9 billion),
the Netherlands (US$ 2.5 billion), Poland (US$ 1.7 billion),
France (US$ 1.3 billion), Germany (US$ 1.3 billion), Belgium
(US$ 1 billion), Hong Kong SAR (US$ 804 million), Hungary
(US$ 652 million) and Turkey (US$ 651 million).