The first annual World Halal Forum was held in Kuala Lumpur between May 8th and 10th, 2006. As a part of Halal Malaysia Week (May 8 - 14), the World Halal Forum led into the third annual MIHAS or Malaysian International Halal Showcase. The idea of Halal Malaysia Week was coined as a nation-wide campaign to develop the understanding and awareness of the concept of Halal and Halal products and services on a worldwide basis. The Forum set out to establish this understanding and awareness through not only religious terms, i.e. what is Halal?, but also in economic terms.
The World Halal Forum, and its corollary events, sought to contribute to building identity for Muslims worldwide by defining the need for an industry wide event that tackled varying interpretations of Halal and the need for uniform standards as well as the financial impact the market has on a range of sectors from food and agriculture to shipping and logistics.
Positioning 'Halal'
"Halal, in its real meaning, is still waiting to be discovered. Halal is at home among these values healthy, organic, natural, environmentally friendly, non-cruelty to animals, ethnic, fair trade and even kosher. Halal overlaps these values, even encompasses these values." Juma'atun Azmi of KasehDia
Despite its vast size estimates range from $300 to $500 billion the global Halal industry still tends to be fragmented with numerous standards for what is Halal co-existing and sometimes competing with each other in the market. In conversations with delegates from Africa, Latin America, and Australia it was surprising to find as much discord in an area that sounds as simple as food. I reminded myself, however, that unfortunately legal differences of opinion, even legitimate ones, often lead to such fragmentation.
One of the ways to address this disunity was to bring the industry into the picture and to illustrate the global demand for these products and the buying power of Muslims worldwide. This was done amply by the World Halal Forum's chief organizers and patrons.
KasehDia and the Malaysian Government
The World Halal Forum was the brainchild of KasehDia, a Kuala Lumpur based consulting/publishing outfit which has tasked itself with the development of the worldwide Halal market. KasehDia also publishes the Halal Journal which is released bi-monthly and maintains www.halaljournal.com. The forces behind KasehDia's promotion of the event are the husband and wife time of Abdul Hamid and Salama Evans.
In addition to KasehDia the World Halal Forum benefited from the generous support of the Malaysian government. Khairy Jamaluddin, a young Malaysian with a clearly distinguishable Oxbridge accent, was the face of the World Halal Forum. The son-in-law of the Prime Minister and a student leader of UMNO (United Malays National Organization), Mr. Jamaluddin has taken it upon himself to personally work for the development of the global Halal industry. An oft quoted phrase from Mr. Jamaluddin reads, "It is time to establish a forum that not only discusses the Halal issue in religious terms but also from the business and economic applications and appreciation".
With the efforts of KasehDia and Mr. Jamaluddin combined the World Halal Forum opened up to a global audience. Like Islamic Finance the fascination with Halal extended beyond Muslims to non-Muslims who attended in large numbers. They represented the various cognate industries with an interest in the development of Halal as a global market niche.
The Ideas
As I attended the many sessions at the World Halal Forum and spoke to its organizers three main themes stood out Let Business Lead, Redefining Halal, and the confluence between the Halal market and Islamic finance.
Let Businesses Lead
A constant topic for discussion among the leaders of the conference was that government agencies have been slow to respond to the demands of the global Halal market. Standards have not been set or in many cases they are not properly enforced where they do exist. Malaysia certainly stands apart in this sense but other governments have not shown the proactivity required to create and spur the Halal market. The World Halal Forum was established as an industry-led forum which takes issues relating to Halal out of the theoretical arena into the realm of corporate action.
True to its word the forum did not include any government regulatory agency on its panels nor was it entirely apparent if representatives of the DSM (Department of Standards Malaysia) or JAKIM (Department of Islamic Development Malaysia) were in attendance of the Forum. This was curious since Malaysia itself is bidding to capture a sizeable portion of the global market as it establishes itself as a global Halal hub. While various intersecting industries (meat production, fast food, retail, animal feed, etc) talked about Halal, representatives from government standards setting bodies were absent. It seemed that only a number of independent certifiers (not from government bodies) from Africa, Latin America, Australia, and North America attended the conference.
My exposure to the Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM) was a result of a visit to their offices organized by MATRADE the Malaysian Trade Office. Our hosts at JAKIM presented an update on the government's initiatives to promote Halal and to create an efficient system through which consumers might verify the status of a product's Halal certification. At the same time however, they did not give a very clear answer as to their office's inconspicuous attendance of the World Halal Forum.
This absence makes the apparent government support of the World Halal Forum all the more paradoxical since Prime Minister Badawi himself officiated at the opening ceremony. The walk away message was the government and industry are cooperating while the scholars and standards setters are being told what to do. The dynamics of the relationship remain to be seen.
Redefining Halal
When the topic of discussion is Halal there's no getting away from technical issues relating to animal slaughter techniques or processing of food ingredients. Despite this, the idea of Halal as a market concept in and of itself was also discussed. In the words of Juma'atun Azmi of KasehDia, "Halal, in its real meaning, is still waiting to be discovered." Ms. Azmi took the lead on the opening day of the conference by introducing a number of ideas which are highly prevalent as value added marketing/branding concepts including healthy, organic, natural, environmentally friendly, non-cruelty to animals, ethnic, fair trade and even kosher. In Ms. Azmi's words, "Halal is at home among these values. Halal overlaps these values, even encompasses these values."
The effort to cast a wider net under the rubric of Halal is certainly a noble one that is long over due.
Without a doubt the concept can lead to expanded markets outside the core Muslim ones through co-branding with values such as healthy, organic, etc. The difficulty comes in taking the concept even further into areas which do not need strict Halal standards. While as a legal concept Halal might be applied to clothing, business practices, etc. the discussion of Halal invariably turns to food and edible ingredients. In the long run it may make more sense to focus on the food and edible ingredients industry.
IF and the Halal Markets
While the values represented by Halal are being defined and refined there is also a need for the financing and raw monetary power to support the development of its industries. A concerted effort was made at the World Halal Forum to unite Islamic finance with the development of the Halal marketplace. To quote Juma'atun Azmi once more, "Halal goods and Islamic financial services belong together, they are part of the same market, they share the same values, and the same life style."
The idea behind a broader collaboration is to develop a Halal economy based on Islamic financial principles and the qualities of Halal. The two fields have a number of synergies to facilitate such cooperation and with Malaysia currently one of, if not, the leading Islamic finance market in the world there is no doubt that the will to develop the Halal sector exists. At the same time though, the modalities of such cooperation needs to be carefully thought out.
IF itself is a field that continues to develop. In short, it's far from mature. So it may be premature to develop the Halal market along the ideals of an Islamic finance market which does not fully exist. Critics and supporters are in agreement that IF today seems to far from its ideals. Every possible precaution should be taken to emphasize the main qualities of Halal which transcend the mere technical requirements of the slaughter but also include a spiritual quality that cannot be compromised for the sake of industry or otherwise.
Another issue that needs careful consideration concerns the leadership of the Halal sector. The organizers of the World Halal Forum presented clear guidance on this issue. "Muslims must provide the direction for all to follow", were the words of Ms. Azmi. This is unlike IF where, as a widely read Newsweek article stated, Western financial institutions have taken the lead. To maintain emphasis on the totality of what Halal represents it will be necessary for Muslim majority countries to maintain their leadership of this sector.
Looking ahead
In all respects, the development of the Halal market is an exciting prospect. The Malaysian government has taken a proactive approach to this by supporting initiatives such as the WHF and by enlisting its trade promotion arm MATRADE which helped to put together an impressive line up of events during the week from the World Halal Forum to MIHAS. While we can estimate the amount of money in the market, the potential good will to be gained by marketing quality halal products to a global market Muslims and non-Muslims is beyond estimate. The caveats presented above are mentioned in the spirit of contributing to the discussion on the progress and development of the market.
By Sajjad Chowdhry
© Dinar Standard 2006
