Al Islami represents UAE halal market at food forum in Taiwan

These deliberations were presented by Alex Andarakis, chief executive officer of Al Islami Foods, an award winning halal producer in the Middle East, as guest-speaker at the 'Exploring the Muslim Food Market Forum 2009' held at the sidelines of Kaohsiung Food Show 2009, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The Southeast Asian producers are vying over $2.1 trillion and growing halal food market in 185 countries and working out on long-term plans to enter more than 1.8 billion Muslim market.

The show is jointly organized by TAITRA (the Taiwan External Trade Development Council) and Kaohsiung City Marine Bureau under the auspices of the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs. The exhibition opened on November 5 and will run until November 8, 2009.

TAITRA said in a statement, "The Kaohsiung Food Show has succeeded in arousing the interest of international buyers that come from nations as diverse as Malaysia, Canada, USA, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Oman."

"This year's show has a special guest speaker from the Middle East's halal food industry, Alex Andarakis, CEO at Al Islami Foods. We short listed Al Islami due to its leading position in regional halal food market. Alex provided great insight into the growing Halal food industry,"

the statement said.

The food show featured fresh fruits, agricultural products, meat and dairy products, fish products, condiments, frozen and processed products, dehydrated food stuffs, beverages, confectionaries, cookies, health foods, leisure foods, tableware, personal food and machinery.

TAITRA is playing a leading role in the South-East-Asia region in developing the halal market and supported Taiwan emerging as a new player looking to invest in this fast growing market. The Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan, realizing the substantial halal potential, has put concerted efforts to tap into this lucrative Islamic shariah compliant market to fetch its share from over $2.1 trillion market annually. These efforts include: patronizing the halal events, encouraging suppliers to look into supplying to halal market, activating Taiwan Trade Center within the Muslim markets.

The expo, which has become South Taiwan's largest food show in just three years, offered a much needed boost to the consumer-challenged economy of the SEA region while helping manufactures to test the foreign waters for additional business opportunities. Taiwan is one of the world's top-20 exporting countries and has a good reputation for its food products - meat, fruits, vegetables and drinks. In 2008, Taiwan's food exports totaled $2.7bn, according to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA).

The reason is clear: there are over 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, or a quarter of the world population. The annual production value of Halal food is estimated at $600bn a year and is growing. Taiwan, where most people are Buddhists, has 50,000 Muslims plus 100,000 foreign Muslims, mostly Indonesian workers.