REPORTING. Halal, a market in constant growth and diversification, which “represents trillions of dollars!”

The halal market represents several trillion dollars today and continues to grow and diversify, as evidenced by the World Halal Summit which has just concluded in Turkey.

The World Halal Summit has just ended in Türkiye. Halal is a very important market which represents 7,000 billion dollars today and is even expected to rise to 10,000 billion in the next five years. It is one of the fastest growing markets with an increase of 7 to 8% each year, firstly because the Muslim population is growing and its standard of living is rising, particularly in Africa, then because that this population increasingly desires halal-branded products.

Paradoxically, the largest exporters of this type of product are not Muslim countries. Brazil is in the lead, with its meat exports. No Muslim country is in the top five.

In the aisles of the World Summit in Istanbul, a Spanish wine producer lines up his bottles. “It looks like wine, we wanted it that way, but it’s not wineexplains the producer. We have adapted to the halal “lifestyle”. It is therefore alcohol-free wine from our indigenous vines in Spain. It is also with the same vines that we produce our alcoholic wines. Our vineyard has been managed in the traditional way, in the family, since 1850 but we are open to innovations. This is why we launched into halal. We read that this market represents not billions but trillions of dollars! We want to trade with the most important countries for halal such as Indonesia or Malaysia. We have a halal certificate as a producer which allows us to export to Muslim countries.” Malaysia was also a pioneer in creating this halal certification in the 1970s.

The halal tourism market

Since then, halal has spread to sectors other than food. Thus, there is even halal tourism, as explained by Murat Yas who teaches halal economics at Marmara University. “To issue a halal certificate in tourism, we will look at whether hotels provide halal food or not, whether they serve as the alcoholanalyzes the professor. We will also check if, dIn the rooms, an arrow indicates the direction of Mecca, if there is a prayer rug, a Koran. There should be no photos of women or non-Islamic paintings on the wall. Men and women must have separate swimming pools. Staff must be dressed in a manner consistent with the precepts of Islam. So there are all these rules for Muslim travelers because they want to go to Europe, Asia, America, Africa while preserving their values.”

“Many countries offer a guide for Muslim travelers so they know where to find halal food, a halal hotel, or Muslim-friendly hospitals. This is the case in Tokyo, Japan, for example. “The aim is to attract more tourists, as Muslims represent around 10% of total travelers worldwide.”

Murat Yas, professor of halal economics at Marmara University

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But it also works the other way: halal tourism operators also want to appeal to non-Muslims. “Of course we cater to Muslim travelers, but that doesn’t stop non-Muslims from experiencing Islamic tourismsays Marina Muhamad of the Islamic Tourism Center in Kuala Lumpur. Because we are attentive to welcoming families, to security and to labeling a hotel “welcoming to Muslims”, we also pay attention to sustainability, to hotels that practice zero waste and recycling. And we are extending our certification to spas and wellness centers but also to medical tourism.” A market in which Turkey wants to take the lead.

Halal and respect for the environment

Halal certification is sometimes thrown into the mix, particularly for cosmetic products. “These are not only products linked to Islam but also to the environmentexplains Wassilia Ouldchik, co-organizer of the Summit. When we talk about halal cosmetics, we are talking about products that do not contain chemicals, that respect the environment and therefore everything is organic and natural. In fact, the name can change from one country to another, from one culture to another. Halal certification rather serves to strengthen and facilitate trade when the destination is a country of Muslim consumption.”

Moreover, there is real competition in halal certification. Muslim countries have gotten started and are trying to define a common standard to impose their certification, a big business.