HCM City (VNS/VNA) -With nearly 2 billion Muslims worldwide and demand for Halal products beingworth around 2.3 trillion USD annually, there is potentially a huge market forVietnamese firms to exploit, experts have said.

According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce andIndustry (VCCI), the global Halal industry is forecast to be worth 3.6 trillionUSD by 2021, with food and drink accounting for 2 trillion USD.

Halal refers to any action or behaviour that ispermissible in Islam, and requires animals to be slaughtered in a particularway and after a prayer.

Muslim countries with large demand are the UAE,Kuwait, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The UAE is the second largest economy in theMiddle East, a regional commercial and financial centre and the third largesttransshipment hub and re-export centre globally. It has huge demand for variousproducts, with its imports being worth 265 billion USD last year.

Kuwait also needs to import all sorts of goodsbecause of its unfavourable conditions in terms of land and workers.

But so far, the market share of Vietnameseproducts in these countries remains modest.

For instance, Vietnam’s share of the UAE’simports last year was less than 2 percent at 5 billion USD.

According to experts, demand in the market isincreasing, offering Vietnamese firms a great chance to boost exports ofproducts such as tea, coffee, dried and canned fruits, canned drinks, andcharcoal.

Their exports to Kuwait are worth only 70-75million USD out of a total of 30 billion USD.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hang, head of the marketingdivision at the Halal Certification Agency in Vietnam, said this market doesnot have technical and tariff barriers like the US or EU but requires strictHalal standards.

Tran Phan Te, general director of Lai Phú JointStock Company which has exported products to Muslim markets in the Middle East,said to obtain Halal certification, companies must undergo a food processingprocedures audit.

Hang said many businesses only know that Halalproducts are those not tainted by pork but do not know they must also meetother requirements.

Since there are very few Muslims in Vietnam,local companies are still not familiar with Halal standards, which aredifferent in each country, complicating the issue somewhat, she said.

But she and many other experts encouragedVietnamese businesses to understand Halal requirements to step up exports toMuslim countries.-VNS/VNA