Pakistan can earn heavily by investing in halal meat production and its processing as these products have a strong appeal among consumers in international markets, with only the halal food market of Europe is worth around $66 billion. France has the largest share of $17 billion among European markets.
University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan stated this at the National Goat Show, organised by the Faculty of Animal Husbandry at the university on Saturday.
He said in the United Kingdom, halal meat sales amounted to $600 million annually while American Muslims spent $13 billion on halal food per annum.
He underscored the need for steps to stem increasing migration of people from rural to urban areas in search for better living standards, adding problems faced by the farming community should be addressed and they be provided state-of-the-art tools and equipment for farming.
He said the agriculture university organised such shows to promote community building activities and create awareness among agriculture and livestock farmers about increase in production by adopting new techniques.
He said the goat show would provide an opportunity to the farmers to sell animals at sale points at the campus next year.
“Only the farmers are ensuring food security by investing their time and money with devotion,” he said while referring to the country’s population, which had grown from 35 million in 1947 to around 180 million at present.
He said on the one side, population of the country was increasing but on the other hand, agricultural land was decreasing.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2011.
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John B: Let's do the arithmetic shall we:
$13,000,000,000/$2,000=6,500,000 individuals. That is 6.5 million or around 2% of the US population. If the number is still too high for your liking consider that halal food probably commands a premium and so the amount spent on it is higher and the number of consumers lower.
Anyway OT, I think exporting food when food prices are so high locally is a bad idea. It's also unrealistic because we can barely keep our fish exports to the EU going because of poor quality standards. Exporting fish makes fish very expensive for local consumers. I shudder to think of the impact of meat exports on local prices.
"American Muslims spent $13 billion on halal food per annum."
The figure quoted is incorrect and disproportionate to the Halal consuming populace.
Assuming that average spending per person is $2000/ year for Halal meat alone, this brings the Halal consuming population more than the population of the US or the entire N. America population.
Instead of depending on the gov , the business community should start taking steps on its own .I always think that overseas Pakistanis can contribute a lot if they are guided and involved in these mega projects , Best of luck