Shamil Ageyev: ‘There are measures and plans, but there is no progress — we are running in place’

By 2030, the Halal market will exceed $4.5 trillion

Over the past ten years, the global halal market has grown 8 times — to $8 trillion. According to experts, in the next five years, it will increase by another 1.5 times — to $12 trillion. Two key sectors of the market: Islamic finance and food products. The first accounts for $4 trillion, the second — $2.44 trillion.

“The global halal food market will grow at an average annual growth rate of 9.33% until 2030 and will exceed $4.5 trillion in 2030,” said Yuliana Syrayeva, programme director of the Directorate for International Programmes.

Islam is the second largest and one of the fastest growing religions in the world, almost a quarter of the world's population are Muslims. Due to strict product certification standards, halal is high-quality products. This also contributes to the growing popularity of Halal food, and not only among followers of Islam.

The Russian halal market is estimated at 1.2 trillion rubles, or $14.2 billion. Last year, it grew by 11%. Halal products account for 5% of the total turnover of retail food trade. Producing halal goods, our country mainly exports poultry and offal (90%), and also dairy and confectionery products.

With uniform standards, Tatarstan producers will be able to meet the global demand for Halal products

The speaker named four problems in the development of the halal market in Russia. The first is the lack of uniform national standards for product certification. There are more than 40 voluntary certification systems in the country, but there is no unified system and guarantor and controller between them. The second problem is unscrupulous certification bodies.

“There are still dubious structures operating in the domestic halal market that issue certificates without proper control. Unfortunately, this seriously reduces consumer confidence,” noted Yuliana Syrayeva.

Thirdly, it is the high cost of manufactured halal products compared to non-Halal analogues. The markup on Halal meat, according to the speaker, can be from 15% to 40%. The fourth difficulty is that the range of halal products is significantly limited — with the exception of meat products.

A representative of certification bodies from Turkey continued the topic via teleconference. The expert also noted the rapid growth of the global Halal industry. According to him, standards are also changing dynamically, not only in the food industry, but also in tourism, logistics, pharmaceuticals and pets.

“Knowledge plays an important role in the creation of a culture that promotes the development of science and innovation in the Halal industry. In this regard, the introduction of uniform halal standards among manufacturers in Tatarstan is extremely important for several reasons. The adoption of uniform standards will ensure the consistency, reliability and quality of all Halal products. By bringing them into compliance, Tatarstan manufacturers will be able to meet the growing global demand for Halal products,” the foreign expert emphasised.

Export of halal products from Tatarstan has grown to $11.5 million

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustem Gaynullov spoke about the promotion of Halal products from Tatarstan for export. According to him, extensive systematic work is being carried out with certification bodies that have international accreditation. According to the assignment, the republic should export agricultural products worth $457 million this year. The plan has been fulfilled by 87% — this is almost $400 million.

“A lot of work has been done, colleagues, but there is very little time left until the end of the year. Therefore, we still need to ship about $50 million in export products. This also includes products according to the Halal standard,” said the vice minister of agriculture of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Back in 2020, the republic had modest results in export activities, but over the past time, the figures have increased threefold. Today, there are 258 exporters in Tatarstan who send their goods to 52 countries around the world. At the same time, the supply of Halal products abroad has also increased.

“This year we sold 550,000 tonnes of products — this is a huge figure for the export of Halal products,” said Rustem Gaynullov. “According to the results of last year, we increased the export of Halal products to $11.5 million, while in 2020 this figure was only $300,000.”

There are about 150 companies in the republic that work according to Halal standards, of which about 20 export their goods. In order for the rest to be able to supply their products abroad, they will have to go through a complex procedure of international accreditation. The plans include bringing Tatarstan business to the dynamically developing markets of Indonesia and Malaysia.

“We must capture these markets, cover them and push out unfriendly countries — this is our task. Last year, we visited Indonesia and Malaysia. This year we visited Malaysia again, we have built friendly relations from the very top, with the minister of agriculture and food security of this country, he is our great friend, supports us in all our endeavours,” the deputy minister noted.

“There are many measures, but there is little action”

The long distance between our countries creates its own difficulties for entering these markets. The big problem is logistics, he continued. Therefore, export is only advisable for products with high margins. Rustem Gaynullov dwelt in detail on a large block of measures to support Tatarstan exporters.

After listening to several more speakers on the topic of developing the Halal industry in Tatarstan, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan Shamil Ageyev noted:

“We need to see what to pay attention to, how to get things moving. We have everything, we have plans with Malaysia, but there is no progress. We would like to understand what the reason is. What measures are not working. Once again, many measures are being taken, but there is little action. I would like the discussion to be critical, taking into account real proposals. So listening to it, everything is fine, there are measures, there are plans, but there is no progress. We are treading in place, I will say frankly.”