Halal food and drink is a bigger market than China – worth more than £900bn – and will become increasingly important to food manufacturers when the UK leaves the EU, according to a specialist consultant.
Speaking at the recent Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Beef and Lamb Halal Seminar, Abdalhamid Evans –
strategist at halal consultancy Imarat Consulting – told delegates that the UK would need to compete in Islamic markets after Brexit.
The global population of Muslims – who follow strict dietary halal guidelines – is about 1.2bn globally. That compared with 854M
Chinese people, according to American think-tank The Pew Research Center.
Muslims spent £956bn ($1.17tr) on food and drink in 2015, according to Thomson Reuters State of the Islamic Economy report.
Speaking about the importance of the halal market post-Brexit, Evans said: “If we want to be open for business with the world, we need to be aware that a lot of the rest of the world is Muslim. “Muslims are the only major religious group projected to grow faster
than the world’s population as a whole.”
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