Pakistan is still developing its own halal standards and there is no official halal certification body in Pakistan. The countries with Muslims majority are the most obvious target market for halal products especially for meat and meat products.

However, Muslims living outside the Sub continent and Middle East are more in need of halal products and services, which creates a big opportunity for suppliers of halal products. In Europe, the market size of halal foods is estimated to be $66 billion, with France having the largest share of approximately $17 billion. In the UK, halal meat sale alone is worth over $600 million annually.

“The American Muslims spend around $13 billion on halal food products annually. The GCC’s halal food imports are worth approximately $44 billion. Annual halal food trade in India is worth over $21 billion. Indonesia’s annual halal food expenditure is over $70 billion,” Harvest Tradings Chief Executive Officer (ECO) Ahmad Jawad said this while talking to INP.

Ahmad Jawad said that government must give a better exposure to country exports by fulfilling the requirements of the consumers to this potent source. He said that Pakistan has a great potential to become the halal hub of the region.

He said that Pakistan’s strength is a 100 per cent Halal production base from a Muslim country, with over 170 million consumers within Pakistan and a direct access to a grand total of 470 million halal consumers in Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Middle East. As per the latest research by the World Halal Forum, the total size of global halal food market is worth about $632 billion in 2009 and if we also include the non-Muslim consumers, the total figure will be much higher, the CEO Harvest Tradings added.

Halal industry experts believe the size of total global halal market (including all halal food, non food products and services) ranges from a minimum of $1.2 trillion to $2 trillion per annum.

More than 80 per cent of the world halal trade is done by non-Muslim countries, both in the West and East, which, by utilising the halal brand to their economic benefit, have become the biggest exporters of halal products in the world.

In the West, USA, Brazil, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and France are the biggest halal suppliers. In the East, Thailand is the biggest exporter of halal certified products after which Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and India are the leading halal products suppliers to the world.

The reason for this vast thriving market goes hand in hand with halal products being widely recognised for their quality assurance and the halal label to become a symbol of good quality product.