Industry News

The global market for halal food and products is growing annually, and the outlook is promising. CHICAGO, July 17 (UPI) – With two weeks of Ramadan behind us, Muslims who accept halal food have more options for ending their fast. Saffron Road, which uses halal products from a Stamford, Connecticut-based company, prepares food that meets halal requirements. The future of halal products is bright.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based company has less than $6 million in annual revenue, but Executive Vice President Jack Ackery says it's growing exponentially. "Halal is fundamental to our brand," Ackery says. "We are the first nationally produced, naturally halal-certified product line." He describes his operation as "an American company that's more halal than Halal Foods."

"Halal dietary rules prohibit the consumption of pork products and animal blood, except in emergencies. Halal products also cannot contain alcohol, and animals must be slaughtered according to strict rituals," said Akri, who is not Muslim but has experience in launching high-quality products. He said, "The halal industry is like kosher in the early 1950s. Any national certification process and the large number of products available are mostly local or regional production." He said: "We are the pioneers of halal in the United States." "Halal is more "tolerant" than kosher in many ways." Akri said the company has received many comments on Facebook expressing gratitude for their preparation of halal meat products. The company hopes to make its halal products appeal to a wider audience, just as kosher products are popular among non-Jews.

Akri said, “Natural food consumers look to kosher foods as a safer choice when it comes to meat, and we look forward to educating them on the parallels with halal…” Akri sees the current line as a stepping stone, and hopes to expand next year to include ingredients that halal chefs can use to craft halal food.

Currently, Saffron Road products are available in 2,000 locations, including Whole Foods. They are halal, their chicken products are antibiotic-free, and many of their halal products are gluten-free. The company hopes to expand to 4,000 locations by the end of the year. Whole Foods is Saffron Road's largest retail partner, and the company has plans to expand to other chains.

my country's halal market is also booming. Experts estimate that this year's growth rate will exceed 20%, not including other daily necessities besides food, such as clothing, accessories, and handicrafts. It is understood that the industry has maintained a growth rate of around 10% in recent years. Currently, there are halal food businesses in over 2,300 cities and counties nationwide, involving more than 10,000 companies. According to statistics, Beijing has over 1,200 halal restaurants, accounting for approximately 2.8% of all catering outlets; Guangdong Province has over 1,200 halal food businesses; Lanzhou has nearly 3,000 halal restaurants; and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has over 5,000 halal restaurants, accounting for 80% of all catering businesses. Although halal food is a niche category within the catering market, non-Muslims account for over 80% of its consumers. For example, there are over 50,000 halal beef noodle companies nationwide, employing 580,000 people and generating annual sales of 16.6 billion yuan. We hope that relevant Chinese companies will pay more attention to international halal trends and seize business opportunities.