LAHORE - Malaysian State Minister for Religious Affairs and Domestic Trade Haji Abdul Malik Kassim has said that Pakistan Halal products are fast gaining ground in international halal market, therefore government should expedite measures to start certification to give required boost to this trade that has 16 per cent share in total world trade.
The Malaysian Minister was speaking at Halal Food Exporters Conference held in connection with Lahore Shopping Festival 2013 and organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with Punjab Government.
Malaysian Minister Haji Abdul Malik Kassim said that Malaysia was playing a very vital role in the expansion of Halal food industry and taking all possible measures for the promotion of Halal products. He said that Pakistan has the potential to become superpower of Halal industry since it has all the required ingredients and potential.
He expressed the optimism that Pakistan can triple Halal food exports by formulating and implementing policies in consultation with private sector.
Provincial Secretary Livestock Sajid Yousafani said that Pakistan has the ability and potential as well to capture a sizeable portion of $2 trillion world Halal food industry and the existing volume of exports is no match to Pakistan’s annual output of Halal meat He said that the required legislation for Halal certification was at advance stage and would help give considerable boost to Pakistani Halal exports.
The LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar said that demand for Halal products had increased manifold because of growing Muslim population world over therefore the government should encourage the export of Halal products.
He further said that LCCI was doing needful for the promotion of Halal products but government would have to come up with a package of incentives so that quality Halal foods could be exported from Pakistan.
LCCI Standing Committee on Halal Food Convener Nasib Ahmad Saifi said that there is no Muslim country included in the list of first ten Halal meat exporters, although Pakistan, Sudan and other Muslim countries have big potential of exporting Halal meat globally.
He said that Pakistan’s strength is a 100 percent Halal production base, with over 180 million consumers in Pakistan and a direct access to a 470 million Halal consumers in Central Asia, Middle East and Europe. He said that Pakistan has great opportunity to grab its share of global Halal product market by enhancing its production and improving quality.
He urged the exporters to continue to explore available opportunities in the world market and focus on research that is a must while doing business at global marketplace. He said that the recommendations of the conference would be presented to the government so that the country could be able to earn much needed foreign exchange.