Stakeholders in $7T global halal market meet in Istanbul

By Ugur Aslanhan, Ergin Garip and Abdullah Yasin Guler

ISTANBUL (AA) - Stakeholders in the market for products meeting Muslim halal guidelines, whose global size has reached around $7 trillion, began a major gathering Thursday in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul.

The three-day 7th World Halal Summit and 8th Organization of Islamic Cooperation Halal Expo will discuss hot topics in the halal market with experts, top officials, and market representatives from Turkey and other countries.

Anadolu Agency is the global communications partner for the summit and expo, organized in cooperation with the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT) and the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC).

The expo includes a variety of sectors boating halal offerings, from tourism to finance, to cosmetics.

Fuat Oktay, Turkey’s vice president, said at the summit’s opening ceremony that the world halal economy's size has leaped from $4 trillion in 2017 to $7 trillion now.

"Since people are not only halal but also clean and healthy, halal products have become sought after not only by Muslims, but by everyone," he underlined.

The largest producers of halal products today are countries where Muslims are not in the majority, such as Brazil, Australia, France, Germany, and New Zealand, he stressed.

He added that to meet on common ground and act together to contribute to the halal economy, divisions, differences, conflicts, and distrust in the field of halal certification must be eliminated.

Adem Sahin, chair of the standards institute, said bodies active in halal certification have not yet found a common ground and that this situation is causing trust issues.

"In this context, it is our country's greatest wish that Islamic countries gather together under a single roof and accept the standards in order to act in the interests of humanity," he said at the opening ceremony.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun