Food Pacific Manufacturing Journal

A GROWING sense that we are seeing the tail end of the global slowdown is manifested in rising consumer spending in the region. In Malaysia and Indonesia, spending may have not been as brisk during this Ramadan compared to a year ago, but the range of foods to break the fast was plentiful and even more so on Eid’l Fitr, when feasting and celebrations mark the end of the fasting period. It seems recovery in Asia is on track and paced much faster than the rest of the world, although guarded optimism seem to be the buzzwords of finance ministers everywhere. This augurs well for the meat & poultry processing industry, which has seen exports fall in the first half. Analysts agree, however, the orders will pick up in the second half and that volumes will likely kick in a modest increase over 2008. One sector that has potential for the region is the poultry processing for the halal market. With a fifth of the world’s 1.4-billion Muslim population, the region has a ready domestic market and the prospects for serving the global markets are promising. Some of the biggest poultry projects will be in the BIMP-EAGA, an ASEAN sub-grouping that comprises provinces of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The global market for halal food products has been valued at $635 billion and the large regional and global halal poultry industry is ripe for investment – and ASEAN poultry producers are first in line. BIMP-EAGA needs to overcome challenges in order to pursue their poultry projects, however, the foremost being the lack of universally accepted halal food processing standards.