H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of SESRIC, addressed the OIC Forum on Global Unified Halal Food Standards which was held at OIC General Secretariat, Jeddah on 9-10 December 2015. In his address H.E. Amb. Kulaklikaya highlighted the fact that with a strong consumer base of over 1.7 billion Muslims and increasing consumption of Halal products by the general public all over the world, the Halal food market represents the appearance of a new economic paradigm that is on the tipping point of becoming a global movement. In fact, many OIC Member Countries especially in South East Asia have already recognized that Halal has the potential to be a real engine of growth for their local economies and all began a variety of government-led initiatives to use Halal as an effective engine of growth for their economies, he added. Furthermore, he also briefed the participants about SESRIC’s continued involvement in various activities which are closely related to the development of unified Halal standards and procedures and promotion of Halal food industry in OIC countries and elsewhere. He concluded his address by expressing readiness of SESRIC to strengthen cooperation with all stakeholders to introduce innovative approaches to develop and implement unified Halal food standards and procedures in OIC Member Countries.

Latter on during the first panel discussion, Mr. Mazhar Hussain, Senior Researcher at SESRIC, delivered a key-note presentation on the "State of Halal Food Industry in OIC Member Countries: Challenges and Potential". His presentation provided a general overview of the recent trends in global halal food industry, with particular emphasis on OIC countries. He also explained the key drivers of global halal food market, untapped potential of Islamic finance for the halal food industry and underlined some on-going challenges ahead of realizing the potential for enhancing intra-OIC cooperation in pursuit of developing a more robust and unified Halal food industry.

The Forum was attended by the various governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental experts, institutions and stakeholders in halal industry. These include national standardization, accreditation and certification institutions of OIC Member States; OIC institutions such as Statistical, Economic, Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), the Islamic Center for Development of Trade (ICDT), the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (ICCIA), and the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC); private sector representatives; and the regional institutions such as the GCC Standardization Organization.

Documents:

• Speech of H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of SESRIC (English)

Presentations:

• State of Halal Food Industry in OIC Member Countries: Challenges and Potential (English)