Illustrative photo (Photo: congthuong.vn)HCMCity (VNA) – Only a handful of Vietnamese enterprises have taken advantage ofexpanding the Halal industry in general and increasing demand for Halal food inparticular to boost exports, heard at a workshop held on July 13 in Ho Chi MinhCity.
Nguyen Tuan, Deputy Director of the Trade and InvestmentPromotion Centre of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the world's Halal food market currently serves about 2 billion people. The global Halal economyreached 7 trillion USD in 2022 and is expected to grow to around 10 trillionUSD by 2028.
Halalrefers to any action or behaviour that is permissible in Islam and includesthings like slaughtering animals for meat in a strictly specified manner.
Notably,the Southeast Asia - South Asia - South Pacific region is a potential exportmarket for Halal products, with a Muslim population of about 860 millionpeople. This is the largest Halal food consumption area in the world with about470 billion USD.
At the trade promotion conference for Hung Yen longan. (Photo: VNA)Tuansaid that although Vietnam has great strength in exporting agricultural andaquatic products and a geographical advantage as being located near large Halalconsuming markets, few Vietnamese enterprises have exported products to theHalal market.
Ly ThiKim Chi, Chairwoman of the HCM City Food and Foodstuff Association, said thatthe demand for Halal products has increased sharply because of therapid growth of the Muslim population, and reflects the increasing trendof many non-Muslims in major economies such as China and Japan, US, and EU as they meeting high standards of food safety and environment.
About62% of the Muslim population is concentrated in Asia, which brings a goodopportunity for Vietnamese enterprises, Chi said.
MalaysianConsul General in Ho Chi Minh City Wong Chia Chiann said that the Halalindustry is one of the increasing trends in the world.
Currently,some Vietnamese businesses started to learn about the Halal market.
Sheadded that a limitation of Vietnamese enterprises in entering the Halal marketis that the percentage of Muslims in Vietnam is low and few of them underwenttraining for the Halal certification process. However, that does not mean thatVietnam does not have an opportunity to exploit the Halal market.
To develop a better Halal ecosystem inVietnam, Vietnamese businesses should employ Muslim personnel/experts who willjoin develop Halal-relating policies, she said.
In thelong term, Malaysia will propose to build domestic personnel and experts on theHalal certification process, especially in the Muslim community. Malaysia iswilling to share its experience with Vietnamese businesses, she said./.
