FAISALABAD City News

‘Country’s share in world Halal market is negligible’

From Our Correspondent

FAISALABAD: Speakers at a training workshop have said that the country’s share in the world Halal market is negligible despite having the great opportunity to grab its global market.

They said this while addressing a training workshop on Halal food arranged at the National Institute of Food Sciences and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, on Friday. Pakistan National Accreditation Council Director General Ismat Gul Khattak said that the country’s share in international Halal markets could be enhance, which was now negligible. She said that there were some ingredients and others food items were available in the markets, which were suspicious in term of Halal food. She said that they had launched a state-of-the-art Halal food accreditation system, which was being copied in several Muslim countries. She added that the system would help eliminate non-Halal items and ensure availability of Halal food for the people. UAF Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that the world’s Muslim population comprises 24pc of the total world’s population with 2 billion people. He said that the world Halal food markets values 1.4 trillion dollar in which Pakistan share was negligible. He told that the world’s leading suppliers for Halal products were Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Thailand and USA. He said that the US and Australia were the largest Halal beef exporters while Brazil and France were the largest Halal chicken exporters in the Middle East. Mufti Naeem said that his foundation was providing state-of-the-art professional guidance about the production and consumption of products and services in accordance with the standards of Halal food. Faculty of Food Nutrition and Home Sciences Dean Prof Dr Masood Sadiq Butt said that it was need of the hour to promote value addition to our food products at par with the international standards.