With a Muslim population of over 2 billion and its growing trend, and with an estimated value of about USD 3 trillion per year, the ‘Halal’ issue appears as an important trait in global trading system. This market, however, appears as an unexplored opportunity of the next era. In response to such incremental global demand for Halal product, Department of Economics and Department of Marketing from the School of Business, IUB hosted an international seminar on “Halal Export Potential for Bangladesh: Business and Economic Perspective” on Tuesday, 15 October 2019. Honorable Vice Chancellor (acting) Professor Milan Pagon inaugurated the seminar. The seminar was conducted in two sessions – the academics talk and the industry panel discussion. The academics talk session was chaired by Professor Aminul Karim, Dean, School of Business, IUB; and the industry panel discussion was moderated by Professor Nadim Jahangir, Department of Management, School of Business, IUB.
The participants of the seminar include Professor Pervaiz K Ahmed (Director, GA21 Research Platform) and Professor Yunus Ali (Deputy director, Halal Ecosystem Research Platform) of Monash University Malaysia (connected trough video conferencing), Professor Sheikh Mohammed Rafiul Huque (Director, IBA) of Jahangirnagar University, Dr. Shahriar Kabir (Associate Professor and Acting Head, Economics Department) and Dr. Shamsun Nahar Momotaz (Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing) of Independent University Bangladesh, Dr. Abu Saleh Patwari (Deputy Director) of Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, Md. Quamrul Hassan (Business Director) ACI Limited, Mr. Ashiquer Rahman Khan (Head of International Marketing) of Square Food & Beverage Limited, Md. Rasel Kabir (Senior Manager) of HRM-QMS, PRAN-RFL Group, Md. Zahangir Alam (Senior Manager-Product Development) of PE Pran Export (H.O), PRAN Exports Limited and Md. Sariful Islam (Manger-Brand) of Dabur, Asian consumers Care (Pvt.) Ltd.
The concept of Halal commodities, potential for global Halal export opportunities, industry opportunities and challenges for Bangladesh in participating the global Halal market were discussed in detail during the seminar. Despite a projected market of USD 10 trillion by 2025, the speakers agreed that the global Halal market is mostly being exploited by non-Muslim majority countries such as USA, UK EU members, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and India. The Muslim majority countries are far behind in the competition in tapping the large and fast-growing global Halal market. Bangladesh may have a good opportunity to expand its export market by focusing on different Halal commodities such as food, cosmetics, hospitality and tourism, clothing and pharmaceuticals etc. However, some national level policy coordination and infrastructure development is required for aggressively penetrating the global Halal market including awareness creation, building of Halal industry park, increasing the testing and quality control facilities. The participants also emphasized that collaboration between industry-academics and the government-body can play an important role in developing a strong national base for the Halal export industry.
