A research project has been commissioned by the newly-formed Halal
Steering Group, established by EBLEX with key industry figures to guide
work in the Halal sector and act as a forum for issues related to Halal
meat. It will cover the Muslim population growth in England, as
well as demand for Halal products, the supply chain and changing
consumption trends, and build on previous work done to form a complete
view of the Halal sector.
In religious matters, supply creates demand.
Since they can easily buy ritually slaughtered meat, Muslims are eating
more every day. Close to 60% routinely buy Muslim meat, according to a
new survey conducted by Ifop. Another 15% said they do so 'most of the
time'. In total, three quarters of the sample, representative of
Muslims living in France, whether foreigners or French, say they eat
halal meat.
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Premium Brands Holdings Corp. (TSX:PBH) says it has
acquired Vancouver-based South Seas Meats Ltd., a distributor of Halal
specialty meats that will help expand Premium's portfolio of ethnic
foods. Premium Brands, which has about 25,000 customers in Western
Canada and Washington State, paid about $2.1 million for South Sea
Meats, which had annual sales of about $10 million. Ahsan
Razak, the founder and operator of South Sea Meats, will join the
management team of Premium Brands.
The Australian meat & livestock industry
will be actively involved in the Gulfood 2010 edition to be held during
February 21-24, in a step that reflects its commitment to the
highly-important ME markets, according to Mr. Lachlan Bowtell, the
Regional Manager of Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), the
international marketing arm of Australian meat and livestock producers.
Brazil's Poultry Exporters Association (Abef) promises to work hard
to open new markets this year, in order to partly make up for the
losses incurred due to the appreciation of the real (the Brazilian
currency) against the dollar, which made the domestic product more
expensive abroad, and due to the global demand retraction seen in 2009.
There are many similarities between Kosher and Halal. The way that Kosher is perceived in the market has a lot of significant parallels to Halal. At this stage, as is shown in the article, Kosher is more of a mainstream product than a religious one. It is very likely that Halal will follow suit in this respect.
Indonesia's highest authority on Islamic affairs, the Council of
Ulema (MUI), has signalled a hard line on imports from New Zealand and
other Western nations.
It plans to insist that all imported food labelled as halal is sold only if it has the council's own halal certification.
The question of stunning animals used for halal meat has become
somewhat of buzzword amongst some UK Muslims. This is mainly due to
poor communication from the relevant bodies on the differences in
stunning techniques and what the shariah (and scholars of fiqh) actually say about the matter of stunning. This short article outlines the approach of Abrahams Natural Foods to stunning.
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan and Malaysia are working on a wide ranging
collaboration in Agriculture and Veterinary sectors including formation
of a Joint Working Group on meat, rice, orange and mango, providing
technical assistance in the import of genetic material and services of
veterinary experts and consultants to Malaysia and sharing Malaysian
experience in Establishment of Halal Food Certification System in
Pakistan.
KFC is continuing to roll out Halal-certified outlets in certain areas of the UK as part of what they call "Our Halal Trial". This is a significant move within the UK restaurant business, and this has prompted us to put up the relevant page from the KFC website. KFC is clearly making an effort to be sensitive to animal welfare issues, as well as to the sensibilities of their halal consumers by clearly stating that they are only using stunned poultry. Because there are Muslims who prefer not to eat meat from stunned animals, KFC are giving them the option to make their own decision as to whether they want to eat there. By locating the Halal outlets carefully, they are also ensuring that both Halal and non-Halal options remain within easy reach of all their customers. A carefully-considered move that we will watch with interest.
