OVERVIEW-The home of Guinness has potential, export-driven opportunities to ramp up its halal food industry

Photo: Dublin city centre skyline / William Murphy / CC BY-SA 2.0 

Ireland has established a robust ecosystem for halal food, one that it can develop further to become a key player in the global export markets. How attractive is Ireland’s halal food industry and what opportunities are there for new players to thrive in it?

IRELAND’S ROBUST FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

The development of Ireland’s food and beverage industry is supported by substantial research and development, including grant awards of 98 million euros ($107 million) from the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine between 2010 and 2015. The industry also benefits from Ireland’s broader reputation for business friendliness; in 2015, Forbes ranked it the fourth best country in the world for business, and it is 17th on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings.

The Irish government has a strategic focus to boost food exports via its Food Harvest 2020 program, which was launched in 2010 to increase exports to 12 billion euros ($13.4 billion) and boost primary agricultural output to 6.3 billion euros ($7 billion) by 2020. With close to 140,000 farms, Ireland has a well-developed agriculture sector and surpassed its 2020 goal in 2014, reaching 7.2 billion euros ($8 billion). In 2015, Ireland updated its Food Harvest Program for 2025 and set an ambitious export target of 19 billion euros ($21.2 billion).

POSITIVE GROWTH DRIVERS IN IRELAND’S HALAL MARKET

How big is Ireland’s halal food market?

There is no official valuation of Ireland’s halal food market but an analysis by DinarStandard on the basis of share of population and the relative income levels of Muslims found that they spent an estimated $90 million on food and beverages in 2015. This points to the potential core spend on halal food and beverages.

As in many other European countries, the halal food industry in Ireland is set for significant growth.

Growing Muslim population driving demand for halal food

Ireland’s Muslim population is small but rapidly growing. The population rose 51 percent from 2006 to reach 49,204 in 2011, according to national census data. Continuing this trajectory of 9 percent growth per annum would imply close to 70,000 Muslims in 2015, or 1.5 percent of the population.

Pew Research Center forecasts there will be 125,000 Muslims living in Ireland by 2030.

Ireland has 35 mosques and more than 120 halal restaurants, according to online halal restaurants and products listing Zabiha.com, indicating an ecosystem to meet the needs of its indigenous Muslim population.

Halal certification ecosystem

The leading certifiers in Ireland include the Department of Halal Certification and the Islamic Foundation of Ireland. The Department of Halal Certification was established by the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre of Ireland in 2008. It has certified over 700 food and drink, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics products.

The Islamic Foundation of Ireland (IFI) was founded in 1959 and established certification services in 1981; it is recognized by the Kuwait Municipality and by the General Secretariat of Municipalities in the United Arab Emirates.    

Well-placed to export halal-certified food products to OIC markets

Ireland exported a total of $968 million worth of food and beverage products to Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) markets in 2015, according to ITC Trademap. This includes $28 million in meat and live animals. 

Although exports to OIC member states are a small portion of the country’s total global F&B products exports of $11.9 billion last year, there is significant potential for expansion.

Exports to the Middle East alone is estimated to account for 4 percent of Irish exports last year, according to Aidan Cotter, CEO of Irish food board Bord Bia, who added that Ireland can "easily" supply food to the growing market for halal. 

There is also a substantial opportunity in halal ingredients, and food manufacturers in Ireland are securing halal certification. According to Tom Beresford, Head of the Food Bio Sciences Department at Teagasc, Ireland’s agriculture and food development authority, one of the major dairies in Ireland had halal status, and another used halal ingredients but had not yet been certified.

Brexit likely to benefit Ireland’s halal industry

Ireland stands to benefit from the uncertainty created by United Kingdom’s Brexit decision, which has caused many in the UK halal food Industry to halt expansion plans and seek operations with the post-Brexit European Union instead.

Hinting at such a move, Rizvan Khalid of Euro Quality Lambs, a key supplier of halal lamb across Europe, commented, “We’re considering looking at Ireland. We have to wait and see what the opportunities are  so that we can assess the broader market. There are significant meat exports from Ireland.”

CHALLENGES AND CONSIDERATIONS

For halal food companies in Ireland seeking to export to OIC countries and secure certification, there are a number of key considerations.

Getting the right certification

One of the key conclusions from the Salaam Gateway report “Resolving Inefficiencies in the Regulation of Halal Food” was that not all certification bodies are considered equal in the level of halal assurance they provide.

In the absence of strict halal accreditation and a lack of mutual recognition among halal certification bodies, international recognition of certifiers in key exports markets is crucial. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland, for instance, is recognized by Kuwait and Dubai as a certifier but not by Malaysia or Indonesia, which would mean having to get certification separately.

This complication may not be avoidable, but it will certainly add to costs and should be understood upfront.

Navigating anti-Muslim sentiment

Anti-Muslim sentiment is strong across Europe, especially in light of recent terrorist attacks. However, Muslim consumers are an important and lucrative segment on account of their sheer size and spending power.

There may be opposition to halal-certified products, but it is critical to do a cost–benefit analysis to understand the net potential benefit of addressing Muslim needs.

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