South Korea loves pork and booze. It desires to be the subsequent halal powerhouse | Food | USAEMALL.com

Seoul, South Korea – At the Malaysia International Halal Showcase final September, an unlikely sight caught the eye of many attendees.

Nestled among the many cubicles from Muslim-majority international locations resembling Indonesia and Kuwait, a kiosk representing pork-loving, hard-drinking South Korea beckoned guests to take a look at halal merchandise starting from seaweed laver to sanitary pads.

“The halal food market is a blue ocean with great potential for growth,” Lee Yong Jik, the top of the meals export division at South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, advised Al Jazeera.

After taking the worlds of movie, TV and pop music by storm, South Korea is setting its sights on the worldwide halal business, which caters to the dietary guidelines and way of life necessities of some 1.8 billion Muslims world wide.

Halal shouldn’t be simply related to historically homogenous South Korea, the place the Muslim neighborhood is estimated to quantity fewer than 200,000 individuals, or lower than 0.4 % of the inhabitants.

But surging demand for Korean delicacies and snacks in Southeast Asia, the place Korean popular culture has a loyal and rising fanbase, has turned Korean exporters onto a doubtlessly profitable alternative.

Muslims’ spending on halal meals alone reached $1.27 trillion in 2021 and is projected to achieve $1.67 trillion by 2025, in accordance with analysis agency DinarStandard.

South Korea’s authorities has been eager to encourage companies to capitalise on the pattern, offering help starting from meals ingredient evaluation to subsidies for certification charges and promotional occasions to attach consumers and suppliers.

In 2015, then-President Park Geun-hye signed an settlement with the United Arab Emirates to advertise companies in new markets, together with halal meals.

In Daegu, South Korea’s fourth-largest metropolis, native authorities have spearheaded a “Halal Food Activation Project” geared toward rising the variety of halal-certified firms within the metropolis tenfold and tripling exports to $200m by 2028.

Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo not too long ago described the halal market as a possibility that “cannot be ignored”.

Lotte Foods, CJ CheilJedang, Daesang and Nongshim are among the many Korean meals giants to have rolled out halal-certified merchandise from kimchi to rice desserts.

Last yr, South Korea started exporting halal Korean native beef, often called hanwoo, for the primary time after receiving the go-ahead from Islamic affairs officers in Malaysia.

Samyang Foods, one among South Korea’s main meals producers, exports halal merchandise to 78 international locations, together with its wildly fashionable “Buldak Ramen” immediate noodles.

Samyang’s gross sales of halal merchandise reached $200m in 2022, accounting for about 45 % of whole exports. Sales in 2023 had been anticipated to achieve about $270m.

Samyang has “consistently recognised the importance of the Muslim market” and has been actively working to advertise “K-food” globally, an organization spokesperson advised Al Jazeera.

Apart from the meals business, gamers within the so-called “K-beauty” sector have additionally cashed in on the pattern.

Cosmetics producer Cosmax, which has its headquarters in Seoul, has been producing halal merchandise at its amenities in Indonesia since 2016.

Despite the rising market, gaining halal certification can appear daunting for a lot of companies, particularly smaller companies.

“The first step is to determine if your product is halal and if it is, then assess whether you actually need halal certification,” Saifullah Jo, chairman of the Korea Halal Association (KOHAS), advised Al Jazeera.

A South Korean nationwide who transformed to Islam, Jo based an Islamic consultancy agency for Korean firms and has translated a e book about halal into Korean.

“Just because a company requests certification, doesn’t mean we will grant it. Some people come to us seeking certification for things that may technically be certifiable but it’s not always practical,” mentioned Jo, whose organisation is one among South Korea’s 4 halal certification our bodies.

“We need to consider the audience and the genuine necessity for certification.”

While alcohol, blood, pork and animals not correctly slaughtered within the identify of God, and meat from animals that died earlier than slaughter, are thought-about haram, or prohibited, even seemingly innocuous gadgets like rice and mineral water will be candidates for halal certification.

“The complexities arise in the production processes. For example, when rice is separated from husks in the milling process, the machinery involved may utilise lubrication and some oils may contain animal-derived ingredients,” Jo mentioned.

“This causes cross-contamination and presents a challenge for ensuring the final product is halal-compliant.”

To make issues extra sophisticated, Indonesia, residence to the world’s largest Muslim inhabitants, final yr introduced that meals firms would from October be required to acquire halal certification inside the nation.

In November, the South Korean and Indonesian governments reached an settlement to exempt agricultural and meals merchandise from certification within the Southeast Asian nation as long as they’ve obtained the halal label from two of South Korea’s certifiers.

While South Korea has made no secret of its ambitions to forge enterprise connections with the Muslim world, social attitudes in the direction of Muslim individuals and Islamic tradition are sometimes not so pleasant.

“Muslims in South Korea are viewed at best with apathy and, at worst, with fear,” Farrah Sheikh, an assistant professor at Keimyung University who specialises in Islam in South Korea, advised Al Jazeera.

Sheikh mentioned some Koreans view halal merchandise as a conduit for Islam to “invade” Korean society.

In Daegu, the place officers are aggressively pursuing the Muslim market, plans to assemble a small mosque have encountered fierce opposition from residents and conservative Christian teams.

In August final yr, rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed “serious concern” to the South Korean authorities over its alleged failure to handle the marketing campaign towards the mosque, which included the show of pig heads outdoors the development website and banners describing Islam as “an evil religion that kills people”.

After the federal government started selling the halal business in 2015, a number of Christian teams started warning concerning the potential “Islamification” of South Korea, an alleged inflow of Muslims and considerations about safety dangers related to halal meals, main the federal government to subject an explanatory doc to dispel misinformation and rumours.

In 2016, the proposed development of an industrial zone for the manufacturing of halal-certified merchandise within the western metropolis of Iksan fell by because of opposition from Christian teams.

That identical yr, a model of potato chip made in Malaysia attracted controversy over halal certification on its packaging, which was later eliminated with out rationalization.

In 2018, South Korea witnessed a wave of protests towards the arrival of a number of hundred Muslim asylum seekers from Yemen. During the identical yr, plans for a prayer room on the Winter Olympic Games had been cancelled, following vehement protests by anti-Muslim campaigners.

For Muslims really dwelling in South Korea, halal merchandise will be troublesome to seek out.

While there are eating places providing halal meals, they’re primarily clustered in Seoul and different giant cities with substantial Muslim communities.

With little in the best way of halal merchandise obtainable on grocery store cabinets, some Muslim residents have resorted to re-importing halal-certified “made in Korea” immediate noodles for his or her consumption.

Asked concerning the lack of halal merchandise in South Korea, Samyang Foods mentioned there was inadequate home demand to assist a market at current.

“However, as the number of Muslim visitors and residents in Korea increases, interest in halal products is growing. Samyang Food is also reviewing the marketability of selling halal products in the Korean market to make it more convenient for domestic Muslim consumers to purchase halal products,” a spokesperson mentioned.

Sheikh, the Keimyung University professor, mentioned Korean firms couldn’t be blamed for eager to money in on a profitable market.

“However, when we see Korean attitudes towards Muslim refugees, or as we have seen in Daegu, we have a clear discrepancy and a big social problem,” he mentioned, including that South Korea should enhance its perspective in the direction of Muslims if it desires to higher goal markets abroad.

Saifullah Jo of KOHAS mentioned he sees a shiny future for Korea’s halal business regardless of the challenges.

“Looking at it from the Korean industry’s standpoint, we are aware of the potential, and we should move swiftly. One of Korea’s key strengths is its ability to adapt rapidly,” he mentioned, including {that a} rising halal market might promote tolerance and understanding.

“Despite some negative minds, we are thinking positively about going into this new market, and Koreans are learning as well. It helps us open up culturally.”