Bilal Gourmet Foods Penetrates Lucrative Halal Market In The EU

From Nor Baizura Basri

THE HAGUE (Netherlands), Feb 13 (Bernama) -- Bilal Gourmet Foods BV, a Malaysian-Dutch company, is making inroads into the vastly potential European market for halal products where demand is exceeding supply.

Specialising in cooked poultry products, the company markets 50 percent of its products for local consumption while the other half is exported to Germany and the United Kingdom, its managing director, Arno van der Pas, said here Wednesday.

At the moment, there are 1.8 to 2 million registered Muslims in the Netherlands.

Bilal Gourmet, 56 percent-owned by Malaysian food-based company Prima-Agri Products Sdn Bhd, is located in Waalwijk, a municipality and city in southern Netherlands, an hour's drive from the Haguec -- the third largest city after Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Prima-Agri is the only Malaysian company which is already approved by the European Commission to export processed poultry meat products to the EU.

The remaining equity is held by van der Pas.

"The demand for halal food products is huge in Europe but the availability of these products is very low as it is a question of credibility, he said.

"In that sense, Malaysia has a headstart and we are very keen of course to try to market Malaysian halal products as much as possible," he told Bernama during a field trip to its facility here.

To date, the company brings in 20 different meat-based products, mainly poultry comprising sausages to cold carts and all kinds of chicken items like hot wings, legs and half roasted chicken.

The field trip was led by Nordin Abdullah, the executive director of KasehDia Sdn Bhd -- the initiator of the World Halal Forum (WHF).

It was organised in conjunction with the WHF's Industry Dialogue to be held here Wednesday organised by KasehDia.

Also participating in the trip are Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency's senior manager for Asian & European projects Rene H.F Vacquier, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation trade commissioner Rusiah Mohamed and several officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries (MOA), Lembaga Tabung Haji, academicians from Universiti Malaya and senior executive director of Prima Agri-Products, Hennie Coenraad.

Van der pas said the company was aiming to penetrate the European food services market, institutional markets like hospitals, caterers as well as specific markets like airlines.

"For Bilal, size does matter. The quantity or volume is actually driving the growth of the halal products," he said.

At the moment, the company imports poultry based products from Thailand and Brazil as Malaysia's Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) was unable to comply with several of EU's rules.

"We are forced now to source approved halal products from the two countries as there are some issues that the Malaysian authorities did not comply with in importing products into the EU.

"We hope that Malaysia will sort things out and facilitate the re-export of approved halal products very soon because we have many orders ready for them.

"Local authorities like the Department of Veterinary Services, Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) and MOA, must sit down and work together to meet compliance lists and enable exports to the EU," he said.

Compared with halal products from Thailand and Brazil, Malaysian halal products are more credible, well-known, of high quality and are highly sought in the European market, he said.

The company which has been approved an import quota of 100 metric tonnes of poultry-based products by EU, lost about 50,000 euros (RM220,000) as it failed to bring in the products.

The problem arose following an inspection by the EU committee to Prima Agri's plant which found out that the DVS had failed to notify the company about several minor compliances.

From September 2007, the department had yet to respond to the issue."Its a bit frustrating. We have established a brand name with credibility (but) selling halal products from Brazil and Thailand, which do not have the same credibility as halal products coming out from Malaysia.

"It has affected us and we hope that we can reinstate Malaysian products again in the market very soon. We need those products as that it is our marketing strength," van der Pas said.

Last year, the company chalked up 3 million euros (RM14.1 million) in revenue from just Malaysian products out of a total revenuen of 7 million euros (RM28.7 million).

This year, the company aims to rake in 12 million euros (RM5.4 million) driven by its poultry orientated products, he said.

-- BERNAMA

BSE welcomes first US$1 billion sukuk

by Daniel Stanton on Wednesday, 13 February 2008

The Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE) has listed its first billion-dollar sukuk, it was announced on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabian real estate developer Dar Al Arkan is the issuer of the Islamic bond, which is also the first Saudi sukuk to list in Bahrain.

The US$1 bn sukuk al-ijara was issued by Dar Al Arkan International Sukuk Company, a special purpose vehicle based in the Cayman Islands.

Fouad Abdul Rahman Rashid, director of the BSE, said: "This is truly a landmark event in the history of the BSE and represents a further important milestone in the development of the Islamic capital markets. We look forward to continuing to work with the region's leading corporates and financial institutions to expand the boundaries of the Islamic finance industry."

The five-year sukuk was closed in July 2007, and has already been listed on the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) and Malaysia's Labuan International Financial Exchange (LFX).

Sukuk holders receive an annual return of 2.25% above LIBOR, payable every three months.

This is Dar Al Arkan's second sukuk issue, following its $600m issue in March 2007, which was listed on the DIFX.

Dar Al Arkan recently completed its initial public offering (IPO) on the Saudi Stock Exchange, the largest non-governmental listing in the history of the Tadawul. The shares began trading on December 29.

First Islamic finance consultancy company launched - Qater

(MENAFN - The Peninsula) Bait Al Mashura Finance Consultations, the first Islamic consultancy company specialised in Islamic finance services industry, auditing and training, was officially launched. Osama Al Dereai, company's General Manager, said at a press on Thursday at the company's headquarters in Al Muntazah area.

He said the company will offer its services to banks, finance companies, investment, traditional Islamic and Islamic insurance companies and brokerages.

Bait Al Mashura is a private joint stock company, which is the first firm licensed by the Qatar Central Bank and the Ministry of Economy and Trade. It is specialized in offering Shariah advice, development and training in the area of Islamic firms Islamic financial industry, Al Dereai said.

He added the idea of establishing a company specializing in Islamic financial industry came in context of current development in Qatar as well as global financial systems, particularly in the Arabian Gulf, Europe and South East Asia. The adoption of Shariah transactions in countries like Syria, Lebanon, Singapore and Japan show public interest and desire to adopt Islamic products.

Al Dereai said the lack of manpower in the field of Islamic financial industry was behind the setting up of Bait Al Mashura and it aims at meeting financial institutions' needs and desires and respond to the requirements of growth and prosperity. In this regard, the company will train students of Qatar University's Shariah and Economic Faculties.

The Islamic financial industry began to grow and evolve quickly from mid 70s of last century but still growing and evolving. Only certain specialists in the field of Islamic financial transactions can understand this characteristic, he added.

The absence of this understanding for people in markets and investors and traditional financial institution are very common. Such knowledge has been limited and constrained between walls of each individual organization.

The company's operations will be in cooperation, integration and participation in the business development of Islamic financial institutions and auditing in cooperation with the elite of scholars and with practical experiences, executive and eminent specialists, experts, economists and jurists.

It will create reliance in the provision of advisory services on modern sophisticated mechanism in the form of diligent teamwork and modern interpretation of the facts, events and developments in the field of economy. It will study of modern resources thorough shariah's point of view with focus on their structure and mechanism for their application with provisions of Shariah's law; and create and develop new financial resources in order to meet needs of beneficiaries and Islamic financial industry compatible with the provisions of Islamic Shariah.

The Company activities revolve around Shariah auditing includes: External Sharia auditing, Sharia consultations and questions answering, Islamic financial indicators, drafting contracts and their set up in accordance with the provisions of Islamic Sharia, examine policies and procedures systems of companies, and development of Shariah alternative to legitimate versions of financial contracts.

The Overall management and supervision of total transformation, partial Islamization and complete Islamization of financial transactions in the traditional banks and establishing their Islamic branch, Zekat Nisab calculation and developing Shariah standards for establishment of investment funds, currencies, sukuk with provisions of the Shariah Law will be another area for the company. Training, studies and researches are other fields for the company.