Current News Article

Current News Article

Katie O’Keefe

Global Marketing

BUMT3850

August 14, 2011

One of the largest and most quickly growing religions in the world is Islam. The Muslim culture follows rules and guidelines and keeps its traditions alive, one of those traditions being Halal. Halal is meat or food that is prepared as prescribed by Muslim law. So it seems only fitting that a country with one of the largest Muslim populations, China, get in on the “$560bn-a-year food industry by exploiting the growing appetite for halal in China.”(Khan, Mehreen) China has a large Muslim population, with an estimated 40bn Muslims. That gives China an estimated $1bn a year in halal product market and estimates that that market could possibly grow at a ten per cent per year growth rate.

Malaysia’s External Trade Corporation, Matrade, is looking to target the north western providence of Gansu where ten percent of the 25m population is Muslim. Malaysia’s External Trade Corporation recognizes the need for halal products in this area and is confident they will create an early market presence and lead the market in this area for halal products. The halal tag can be given to a number of products including cosmetic and clothing but the food industry would have the most potential growth with restaurants, grocery stores, and fast food companies.

The reason behind Malaysia bringing halal products into china is to give companies the opportunity to sell their meat with the halal tag and not exclude any of their products. The halal label is becoming more popular in the Far East and is used at major fast food retailers such as Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco bell. Islam has been present in China for over 1200 years and there is still not a large market for halal products aside from smaller business that operate in areas with a high Muslim population. China is beginning to realize this and is looking to increase its amount of halal products through export as well as receiving...