World meat industry news

The growth of the global halal food market could suffer from the diverse certification systems that exist today and the high costs to meet all the requirements. In 2013, according to the current projection, the global halal food market is supposed to reach a value of $1,863 billion, up by 6.1% from the value of $1,303 billion reported last year.

Nevertheless, the chaos for producers persist as long they have to pay different taxes for certification to more than 300 officially-recognised halal certifiers globally. Halal falls below global best practices due to a lack of commonly-accepted standards among these numerous certifiers, which often result in duplicate certification costs and added complexity, informs Salaam Gateway magazine. The unification of halal certification system is a must but until now only two countries have made significant steps ahead by creating the International Halal Authority Board (IHAB) - Malaysia and Turkey's new Halal Accreditation Authority (HAK). That could be a real problem in the near future for producers exposed on top ten markets with largest values on Muslim food expenditure: Indonesia ($170 billion), Turkey ($127 billion), Pakistan ($118 billion), Egypt ($86 billion), Bangladesh ($76 billion), Iran ($63 billion), Saudi Arabia ($61 billion), Nigeria ($47 billion), Russia ($41 billion) and India ($38 billion). According to the Organization of Islamic Countries, the value of halal food imports recorded last year was of $191.5 billion of which $35.8 billion represents meat and live animals.