Korean companies encouraged to go into halal businesses

As Korean businesses increase exports to the Middle East and other countries with Muslim populations, the Korea Investment-Trade Promotion Agency (Kotra) has launched halal culture education sessions for small and midsize Korean food companies.

The classes are jointly run with the Korea Halal Industry Association (Halal Korea) and will be offered from July 22 for three days.

The classes cover how to obtain halal certification for exporting to Muslim countries and marketing strategies for such cultures.

At the end of the classes, each company gets one-on-one consulting sessions with Muslim market specialists at Kotra and Halal Korea.

The halal industry is emerging as a new export area for Korea in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and leather product exports.

Halal exports also includes service industries such as restaurants, hotel and tourism.

According Thomson Reuters, the world’s halal food market is estimated to grow to $2.5 trillion in 2019 from $1.3 trillion in 2013. India, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia are countries with large Muslim populations.