Pakistan's Senior Minister & Federal Minister for Commerce, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, said this in his address to the first-ever Halal Food Congress Middle East which is a joint venture between a Pakistani organisation, Halal Development Council (HDC) and the Expo Centre Sharjah, says a press release issued here on Tuesday. The Minister said that the UAE Halal food and food products trade was expected to grow rapidly from US $3.6 billion in 2010 to US $8.4 billion in 2020. "As all products in Pakistan were Halal, Pakistan is in a position to claim a huge chunk of the global Halal market," he added.
Deliberating on the Global market of Halal products, he informed that this was over a trillion dollars a year and the experts believe that the size of Halal products market was currently more than $2 trillion. He said that Pakistan being the second biggest Muslim country in the world will have to immediately realise the benefits of the global Halal economy for the country to take full advantage of the 100 percent Halal production base of Pakistani products.
The Minister further said that the Muslim World has been slow to react to the opportunity that has presented itself in the last two decades with the increasing demand of Halal certified products in both food & non-food sectors. "Our products may genuinely be Halal, but due to our ignorance of the 'Power of Halal Brand' and poor understanding of the importance of having the 'Halal Certified' logo, our products are not tested and certified as 'Halal' which is why the international Halal product buyers do not buy from the Muslim countries," he added.
He also urged upon the international Halal experts to formulate strategies to develop the production and export of Halal products from the Muslim countries so that the Halal market should source the Halal food and other products from Pakistan, UAE and other Muslim countries. This, he said, will help develop the Halal trade with the OIC countries and ultimately the standard of living of our population.
An MOU was also signed during the proceedings of the Congress between the Halal Development Council (HDC) of Pakistan and the Sharjah Expo Centre to organise the second Halal Food Expo in 2013. The Minister also attended opening ceremony of third Global Entrepreneurship Summit at World Trade Centre, Dubai which was opened by Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE.-PR