Halal: Buying Muslim (TIME) {$1 Trillion market}

[eppur_se_muova]

By CARLA POWER

Thursday, May. 14, 2009

Khalfan Mohammed has long been buffeted by culture shock while staying in five-star hotels. As a devout Muslim he has learned to ask staff to remove the minibar's alcohol. He loathes lobbies with loud discos and drunken guests. When traveling with his parents, it is the bikinis that rankle most. "It was quite shocking for my mother to sit in a restaurant with undressed people," the Abu Dhabi-based businessman says. "My mom and dad are not used to seeing people in public wearing their underwear." To avoid such embarrassment, the Mohammeds took to renting furnished apartments.

No longer. On a trip to Dubai last year, Mohammed stayed in the Villa Rotana, one of a growing number of hotels catering to Muslim travelers. In the lobby — all white leather, brick and glass, with a small waterfall — quiet reigns. Men in dishdashas and veiled women glide by Westerners who are sometimes discreetly reminded to respect local customs. Minibars are stocked not with alcohol, but with Red Bull, Pepsi and the malt drink Barbican. (See pictures of migrant workers in the Gulf.)

Time was, buying Muslim meant avoiding pork and alcohol and getting your meat from a halal butcher, who slaughtered in accordance with Islamic principles. But the halal food market has exploded in the past decade and is now worth an estimated $632 billion annually, according to the Halal Journal, a Kuala Lumpur-based magazine. That's about 16% of the entire global food industry. Throw in the fast-growing Islam-friendly finance sector and the myriad other products and services — cosmetics, real estate, hotels, fashion, insurance — that comply with Islamic law and the teachings of the Koran, and the sector is worth well over $1 trillion a year.

One reason for the rise of the halal economy is that the world's 1.6 billion Muslims are younger and, in some places at least, richer than ever. Seeking to tap that huge market, non-Muslim multinationals like Tesco, McDonald's and Nestlé have expanded their Muslim-friendly offerings and now control an estimated 90% of the global halal market.

At the same time, governments in Asia and the Middle East are pouring millions into efforts to become regional "halal hubs," providing tailor-made manufacturing centers and "halal logistics" — systems to maintain product purity during shipping and storage. The increased competition is changing manufacturing and supply chains in some unusual places. Most of Saudi Arabia's chicken is raised in Brazil, which means Brazilian suppliers have built elaborate halal slaughtering facilities. Abattoirs in New Zealand, the world's biggest exporter of halal lamb, have hosted delegations from Iran and Malaysia. And the Netherlands, keen to maximize Rotterdam's role as Europe's biggest port, has built halal warehouses so that imported halal goods aren't stored next to pork or alcohol.
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more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1898247,00.html?xid=rss-topstories-cnnpartner

[Xipe Totec]

1. I go to the Halal butcher at Haymarket, Boston

If you want good chicken, butchered properly, that's the place to go.

[msongs]

2. here I thought if you wanted respect you had to give it. nt

[Hannah Bell]

3. what's the difference between halal & kosher?

[dustbunnie]

4. It's very similar, with only a few details differentiating the two -

One of them is, the halal ritual requires a prayer to Allah before the slaughter, while Kosher slaughter doesn't.

[mwooldri]

6. Fair number of differences...

... both are religious laws about food, but there are differences.

Kosher can include alcohol. Alcohol is definitely not halal. In slaughtering, the name of God must be pronounced for the slaughter of each animal in halal but in kosher it's OK to bless the beginning of the slaughtering period for a number of animals. Certain parts of cows, sheep and goats are not kosher but can be halal. Kosher - cannot mix meat and dairy, even down to the dishes on which they are prepared and served. Shellfish are not kosher but are halal.

[Hatalles]

8. That said, most Muslims, in my experience, will eat kosher.

nt

[burning rain]

5. Someone needs to offer devout Muslims better nightlife.

Say, a chain of shariah-compliant nightclubs. No drinks, no music, no dancing -- and a black curtain separating the sexes. There's clearly money to be made here.

[mwooldri]

7. I do like the idea of Islamic finance in some ways...

... basically the prohibiting of charging interest on transactions.

Of course it's circumvented easily - sell at a much higher price and allow payments.