RIYADH, 30 September — The four-day Halal Food Products Conference, which concluded here on Thursday, has recommended the formulation of a halal (permissible) food standard which would eventually be accepted globally for the promotion of halal food exports.
This was one of the recommendations of the conference, which also proposed creation of a halal food label to indicate that it was in conformity with the specifications of the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization. “One of the main objectives of this conference was to create an awareness of the need for halal food standardization,” Osama Al- Kurdi, secretary general of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told Arab News.
He said the second objective was to discuss the certification process of halal food leading to the creation of a label for such food in the interest of consumers’ confidence. “There are several international initiatives for the certification of halal food. The aim is to harmonize these certification programs and create a globally accepted standard for halal food.”
He said the Kingdom, home to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, has an obligation to Muslims around the world to cater to their needs for halal food. Thus the promotion of the Saudi halal food industry was an important objective.
The conference also recommended the setting up of a special cell at the chamber council to promote halal food exports. Al-Kurdi said follow-up action in this regard would be taken in the next two weeks.
He said that of the 600 delegates expected at the conference, many from the West had opted out in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in the US. The secretary-general hoped that the symposium next year would have a better participation.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Industrial Development Fund has cautioned prospective investors in the Kingdom’s food and beverage industry against entering the Saudi market without doing proper groundwork and paying adequate attention to marketing skills.
“There has been a tendency for new projects sponsors to underestimate the impact of this factor,” Talal Ahmad Al-Zamel, credit consultant at the SIDF, said here at one of the concluding sessions of the conference. He was making his presentation on the SIDF’s objectives, policies and achievements.
Referring to the prospects for the F&B industry, Al-Zamel said investors should study a mature market like the Kingdom’s before deciding to launch a new food product. Such a venture, he pointed out, requires considerable marketing finesse in trying “to overcome entrenched brand loyalties which can be particularly difficult to erode. Another feature of the Kingdom’s consumer food market is the wide geographical distribution and large number of small retail outlets.”
