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Arab world needs $144bn to meet food needs

hamid — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:53:09 +0000

FOOD CONCERN: Food security became a major issue in the Arab world since 2008 when food prices soared in the global market. (Getty Images)

Arab countries need to invest $144 billion in agriculture between now and 2030 to meet the demand for food for their growing populations, said an Arab official.

Arab states need to secure half of this amount from private investors to meet the demand of the combined population that is expected to reach 550 million in 2030, said Tareq Al Zadjali, director general of the Arab Organisation for Agriculture Development in an interview in Jeddah this week.

Al-Zadjali said the gap in the Arab world will reach $71 billion in 2030 and without encouraging business to increase investment it can’t be narrowed.

“The private investors need ready infrastructure and Arab countries need to develop that to attract them,” he added. “I don’t expect investors to build electricity stations, grains silos, and ports. This is the responsibility of governments.”

Al-Zadjali said these investments will allow for producing as much as 93 percent of the demand for grains within the Arab world; and 81 percent of the demand for sugar crops and 69 percent of that for oil seeds.

“I’m not expecting us to attract $144 billion in investments but if we attracted 75 percent of that sum then our plan will still work,” he added.

Food security became a major issue in the Arab world since 2008 when food prices soared in the global market. Many exporting nations gave priorities to feed their nations even as Arab countries had the money to buy from abroad, al-Zadjali said.

Since then Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates developed plans to buy farms abroad in Asian and African countries to export food back home. Al-Zadjali wants to see more Arabs investing in agriculture within the Arab worlds’ borders.

Businessmen unveil plans for ‘Muslim Facebook’

salama — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:53:44 +0000

A group of Muslim businessmen unveiled plans in Turkey on Thursday for a Facebook-style social networking site with “healthy values” for a young, Islamic audience.

SalamWorld.com, which will make its internet debut next year, “will seek to unify the youth in a common vision and the healthy values of Islam while attempting to not diffuse any unhealthy information,” said Akhmed Azimov, the initiative’s vice-president.

Based in Istanbul, with offices in Moscow and Cairo and coordinators in 30 countries, the site hopes to attract 50 million users within three years, Azimov told about 150 journalists from Muslim countries at the company’s luxurious Istanbul offices.

“The heart of the project is to create a network without any content that is prohibited by religion,” said Azimov, a Dagestan native. “To achieve this, we will have a big team of moderators and there will be filters.

“We also count on users to moderate themselves and to filter the contents.”

Azimov declined to discuss funding details but said “there’s no problem with that,” adding the investors were a group of businessmen from the Muslim world.

Beyond user-generated content, the site will offer services such as theological consultations and city guides that list mosque locations and halal food stores.

“We’re going to try to create an online encyclopedia, a sort of Islamic Wikipedia,” Azimov said.

UK: Women & Islam – The rise and rise of the convert

salama — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:25:31 +0000

Three-quarters of Britons who become Muslim are female. Now a major new study has shed light on the difficulties they face in adjusting to their new life.

Record numbers of young, white British women are converting to Islam, yet many are reporting a lack of help as they get used to their new religion, according to several surveys.

As Muslims celebrate the start of the religious holiday of Eid today and hundreds of thousands from around the world converge on Mecca for the haj, it emerged that of the 5,200 Britons who converted to Islam last year, more than half are white and 75 per cent of them women.

In the past 10 years some 100,000 British people have converted to Islam, of whom some three-quarters are women, according to the latest statistics. This is a significant increase on the 60,000 Britons in the previous decade, according to researchers based at Swansea University.

While the number of UK converts accelerates, many of the British women who adopt Islam say they have a daily struggle to assimilate their new beliefs within a wider culture that both implicitly and explicitly positions them as outsiders, regardless of their Western upbringing.

More than three-quarters told researchers they had experienced high levels of confusion after conversion, due to the conflicting ways Islam was presented to them. While other major religions have established programmes for guiding new believers through the rigours of their faith, Islam still lacks any such network, especially outside the Muslim hubs of major cities.

Many mosques still bar women from worship or provide scant resources for their needs, forcing them to rely on competing cultural and ideological interpretations within books or the internet for religious support.

A recent study of converts in Leicester, for example, found that 93 per cent of mosques in the region recognised they lacked services for new Muslims, yet only 7 per cent said they were making efforts to address the shortfall.

Many of the young women – the average age of conversion is 27 – are also coming to terms with experiences of discrimination for the first time, despite the only visible difference being a headscarf. Yet few find easy sanctuary within the established Muslim population, with the majority forming their closest bonds with fellow converts rather than born Muslims.

Kevin Brice, author of the Swansea study A Minority Within a Minority, said to be the most comprehensive study of British Muslim converts, added: “White Muslim converts are caught between two increasingly distant camps. Their best relationships remain with other converts, because of their shared experiences, while there is very little difference between the quality of their relationship with other Muslims or non-Muslims.

“My research also found converts came in two types: some are converts of convenience, who adopt the religion because of a life situation such as meeting a Muslim man, although the religion has little discernible impact on their day-to-day lives. For others it is a conversion of conviction where they feel a calling and embrace the religion robustly.

“That’s not to say the two are mutually exclusive – sometimes converts start out on their religious path through convenience and become converts of conviction later on.”

Another finding revealed by the Leicester study was that despite Western portraits of Islam casting it as oppressive to women, a quarter of female converts were attracted to the religion precisely because of thestatus it affords them.

Some analysts have argued that dizzying social and cultural upheavals in Britain over the past decades have meant that far from adopting an alien way of life, some female Muslim converts are re-embracing certain aspects of mid-20th-century Britain, such as rigid gender demarcation, rather than feeling expected to juggle career and family.

The first established Muslim communities started in Britain in the 1860s, when Yemani sailors and Somali labourers settled around the ports of London, Cardiff, Liverpool and Hull. Many married local women who converted to Islam, often suffering widespread discrimination as a result.

They also acted as a bridge between the two cultures, encouraging understanding among indigenous dwellers and helping to integrate the Muslim community they had joined. Today, there is growing recognition among community leaders that the latest generation of female converts has an equally vital role to play in fostering dialogue between an increasingly secular British majority and a minority religion, as misunderstood as it is vilified.

Kristiane Backer, 45

Television presenter and author, London

I converted to Islam in 1995 after Imran Khan introduced me to the faith. At the time I was a presenter for MTV. I used to have all the trappings of success, yet I felt an inner emptiness and somewhat dissatisfied in my life.

The entertainment industry is very much about “if you’ve got it, flaunt it”, which is the exact opposite to the more inward-oriented spiritual attitude of my new faith. My value system changed and God became the centre point of my life and what I was striving towards.

I recognise some new converts feel isolated but, despite there being even fewer resources when I converted than there are now, it isn’t so much an issue I’ve faced. I’ve always felt welcomed and embraced by the Muslims I met and developed a circle of friends and teachers. It helps living in London, because there is so much to engage in as part of the Muslim community. Yet, even in the capital you can be stared at on the Tube for wearing a headscarf. I usually don’t wear one in the West except when praying. I wear the scarf in front of my heart though!

I always try to explain to people that I’ve converted to Islam, not to any culture. Suppression of women, honour killings or forced marriages are all cultural aberrations, not Islamic ones. Islam is also about dignity and respect for yourself and your femininity. Even in the dating game, Muslim men are very respectful. Women are cherished as mothers, too – as a Muslim woman you are not expected to do it all.”

Amy Sall, 28

Retail assistant, Middlesbrough

I’d say I’m still a bit of a party animal – but I’m also a Muslim. I do go out on the town with the girls and I don’t normally wear my headscarf – I know I should do, but I like to do my hair and look nice! I know there are certain clothes I shouldn’t wear either, even things that just show off your arms, but I still do. My husband would like me to be a better Muslim – he thinks drinking is evil – so it does cause rows.

I haven’t worshipped in a mosque since I got married, I find it intimidating. I worry about doing something wrong; people whispering because they see my blonde hair and blue eyes. Middlesbrough is a difficult place to be a Muslim who isn’t Asian – you tend to be treated like an outsider. Once, I was out wearing my headscarf and a local man shouted abuse. It was weird because I’m white and he was white, but all he saw was the scarf, I suppose. It did make me angry. My family were surprisingly fine with me converting, probably because they thought it would rein me in from being a bit wild.

Nicola Penty-Alvarez, 26

Full-time mother, Uxbridge

I was always interested in philosophy and the meaning of life and when I came across Islam it all just clicked. In the space of four or five months I went from going to raves to wearing a headscarf, praying five times a day and generally being quite pious – I did occasionally smoke though.

I felt very welcomed into the Muslim community, but it was a mainly white convert community. My impression of the Asian community in west London was that women felt sidelined and were encouraged to stay at home and look after the men rather than attend mosque. I think this was more a cultural than religious thing, though.

Non-Muslims certainly treat you differently when you’re wearing a headscarf – they’re less friendly and as a smiley person I found that hard. After a year-and-a-half of being a Muslim I stopped. I remember the moment perfectly. I was in a beautiful mosque in Morocco praying beside an old lady and something just came over me. I thought: ‘What the hell am I doing? How have I got into this?’ It just suddenly didn’t feel right. Needless to say my husband, who was a fellow convert, wasn’t impressed. He remained devout and it put a lot of strain on our relationship. We split up, but are on amicable terms now. I’m not really in contact with the Muslim friends I made – we drifted apart.

I don’t regret the experience. There is so much that I learnt spiritually that I’ve kept and I haven’t gone back to my hard partying ways.

Donna Tunkara

Warehouse operative, Middlesbrough

I was a bit of a tearaway growing up – drinking, smoking, running away from home and being disrespectful to my parents. I converted 10 years ago because I met a Muslim man but I’ve probably become more devout than him.

Sometimes, I miss going shopping for clothes to hit the town and then going home and getting ready with my mates, having a laugh. The thing is no one is forcing me not to – it’s my choice.

It did come as a shock to my family, who are Christian. They’ve not rejected me, but they find it difficult to understand. I feel bad because I don’t now attend weddings, funerals or christenings because they’re often at pubs and clubs and I won’t step inside.

There needs to be more resources for women who convert. I know some mosques that won’t allow women in. But in the Koran there is an emphasis on women being educated. I’ve learnt about the religion through my husband’s family and books – if you want support you have to look for it. It’s taken time to regain an identity I’m comfortable with. Because I’m mixed race and a Muslim ,people don’t see me as British – but what’s important is that I know who I am.

The Mainstreaming Of Fair Trade

hamid — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:01:52 +0000

By Ariel Schwartz

If you’ve swigged Honest Tea, eaten a spoonful of Ben and Jerry’s, or sipped on a Starbucks drink, chances are that you’ve consumed a Fair Trade product. And while you may not know exactly what it means for a product to be certified Fair Trade, you probably know that it’s a good thing.

You probably also have noticed the proliferation of Fair Trade products recently–there are over 10,000 of them on U.S. store shelves, and in the second quarter of 2011, sales of Fair Trade certified products skyrocketed 63%. After 13 years of existence in the U.S. (it has been around longer in Europe), Fair Trade is going mainstream.

Paul Rice [1], the CEO of Fair Trade USA (and former Fast Company cover model), believes that it has taken off for two reasons: an increase in consumer awareness and concern around social and environmental issues, and the fact that many people are realizing that the things they consume can have a large ripple effect.

“You see this rapidly growing desire for people to know where their stuff came from,” says Rice. “I think this rising consciousness is leading to a phenomenon that we call the Conscious Consumer. Depending on whose data you read, that consumer segment is anywhere from 15% to 40% of American adult shoppers.” This is a group that is looking for socially and environmentally responsible products on a daily basis–and they’re willing to pay a little bit more (a five to 10 cent premium) for a product that makes them feel good.

On the corporate side, Fair Trade certification has grown because of an awareness of the ramifications of being caught with a supply chain that’s reliant on, say, child labor. Companies all see that the Fair Trade label offers a degree of distinction, especially for the ever-growing Conscious Consumer segment. “Companies are increasingly rethinking how they approach global supply chains and looking for more traceability and more transparency, and that’s what Fair Trade does,” says Rice.

The concept of Fair Trade is simple: Fair Trade USA works with U.S. companies to audit and ensure that their products are compliant with international Fair Trade standards. Farmers who produce Fair Trade certified products receive a fair price for their labor, don’t have to deal with middlemen who skim money off the top of transactions, follow stringent environmental standards, and invest premiums from sales in community development.

Consumer awareness of Fair Trade in the U.S. is around 34%–not as high as awareness of organic products, but it’s a large number considering that Fair Trade has been around in this country for less than two decades. Organic certification in the U.S. has existed since the early 1970s.

The Fair Trade movement has grown so large that it now has the hallmarks of a successful campaign: celebrity spokespeople. Musicians Grace Potter [2] and Michael Franti [3] both are putting on concerts this month dedicated to Fair Trade awareness–the first time that Fair Trade has had any sort of major celebrity endorsement. “If you look at all the causes out there, sooner or later everyone looks for high-visibility spokespeople to tell their story. We’re ready,” says Rice.

Both concerts (Franti’s concert from earlier this month and Potter’s upcoming concert on Thursday) are streaming at Green Mountain Coffee [4]’s Facebook page. Green Mountain was the largest purchaser of Fair Trade certified coffee in the world in 2010.

“It’s one thing to stand beside a brand and say that it tastes good. We’re talking about giving people a better life and providing the stability for these farms and the communities that are creating this coffee,” says Potter.

Fair Trade USA has certainly seen more success in some areas than others. A few years ago, Fair Trade started thinking about taking its methodology “from farm to factory,” according to Rice–beginning with soccer balls and apparel. The challenge is taking these Fair Trade items from mission-driven retailers to big companies like Wilson, Nike, Gap, and Levi’s.

The apparel companies, at least, are all interested. “They’re curious about whether or not they can get the consumers to pay a little more to cover the extra cost to have a more sustainable factory,” says Rice. “That said, launching Fair Trade apparel in the recession was just bad luck, because no apparel company wanted to raise prices.” After crunching the numbers with one jeans company, Fair Trade USA found that a $40 pair of jeans would cost just $4 or $5 more to go Fair Trade–but the apparel companies aren’t convinced that customers will pay.

Regardless, Rice predicts that Fair Trade certifications will continue to grow in the coming years. “Our goal is by 2015 to double our volume and impact around the world in every product category we’re working in. We’ll also definitely be launching new product categories, but we want to go deeper in everything we’re doing,” he says.

UAE: How Urbanisation is Changing Emirati Identity

salama — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:26:06 +0000

By Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi

A video taken in the late 1990’s shows Sheikh Zayed standing in his majlis talking to Mohammed Khalifa Al Habtoor, the speaker of the Federal National Council who served from 1997 to 2003.

I vividly recall watching that video when I was a teenage student in Paris. Sheikh Zayed, wearing his golden embroidered bisht, a sort of cape worn by the heads of tribes in the Gulf on major occasions, gestures to the audience in his majlis, saying, “I swear by God Almighty that I did not know that there were now people (citizens) who were living in rented accommodation. Until I have received their request letters. In Abu Dhabi and in Dubai and from Sharjah and from Ras Al Khaimah. There are people living in rented accommodation. How can they be living in rented accommodation? How can any ruler accept that his citizens are today living in rented accommodation?”

That was as recent as 1998. Today, however, it is a completely different story. Many UAE nationals reside not only in rented houses but also in rented apartments and studios, and many of these shared.

When Sheikh Zayed officially became President of the UAE in December 1971, there were 180,000 UAE inhabitants. That was a manageable number even with the country’s then meagre resources.

Today, the total population has exceeded eight million with the nationals accounting for 923,000 of the total. Many UAE nationals privately dispute the figures of UAE nationals in the belief that the UAE population is less than the official estimate.

It is indubitable, however, that many more Emiratis today live in an urban environment. And a significant number of UAE nationals commute daily to the urban environments of Dubai and Abu Dhabi from the poorer emirates such Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.

A friend, an HR manager, told me a revealing story. A bright Emirati girl, whom we shall name Aisha, applied at one of the many job fairs in Dubai to work for a government-owned establishment.

After the interview young Aisha asked my friend if she would be getting the job. He told her that she would be notified in a week’s time. The girl seemed anxious and told the interviewer that if he could not give her an answer by the end of the day, he need not bother notifying her at all later.

Aisha explained that she was one of five young girls who commute daily to work from one of the farther Northern Emirates to Dubai. Aisha, you see, had lost her job and was very close to losing her carpool seat, the cost of which she shared with the other four Emirati girls.

It seems that there was another contender for the seat and losing it would mean she could not take a new job in Dubai. Stories like that (and there are many) do not fit well with the flamboyant image of the Emirati national and receive little media attention. The media prefer, for instance, the launch of a brand new real estate project.

Such stories also reveal the divide between the age groups. Young UAE national girls are proportionally more educated than young men but are still confined to the customs and traditions of the country. Seldom do young girls share a flat apart from their families, as is the case with young Emirati men.

Abu Dhabi especially has become a magnet for job seekers as its economy continues to grow rapidly despite the recent global financial crisis. New projects, most of them government-led, were not postponed or terminated as was the case in some of the other six emirates.

So high has been the demand for accommodation in Abu Dhabi that the 1980’s and 90’s phenomenon of Emiratis and expats living in one emirate and working in another has been replicated in the capital.

I half jokingly told my friends that in 2009 Dubai had become Abu Dhabi’s Sharjah, the latter being seen by some as an alternative accommodation location to Dubai’s relatively more expensive homes. This is not a negative development since it ensures that the numerous projects that are constructed in Dubai remain occupied.

The phenomenon has grown so much recently that some Abu Dhabi firms have arranged to pick up their staff from places like Ibn Battuta mall in Dubai and bus them to work in Abu Dhabi, which is about an hour’s drive away.

But where does the UAE identity figure in all this? Emiratis from a less wealthy background are, like any other nationality, more willing to work in demanding jobs than are their more prosperous fellow citizens.

For example, etisalat, a telecom provider in Abu Dhabi is largely run and staffed by Emiratis from Ras Al Khaimah. That should not be seen as a negative phenomenon since their presence has contributed to a demographic balance between expats and nationals in Abu Dhabi.

In fact, many Emiratis who traditionally came from the northern less-wealthy emirates and regions have chosen to relocate permanently to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and even Sharjah. Commuting time is an issue since, for example, a short drive of fifteen kilometres from Sharjah to Dubai can take up to one hour and forty-five minutes. Movement to the urban areas has drastically affected the locus of Emirati identity in the country.

Today, much of the traditional culture of the UAE is better preserved in the rural areas of the country while the nation’s rapid urbanisation is creating realities on the ground that are too fast for us to deal with.

For instance, the younger generations of the Shehhi tribe of Ras Al Khaimah, a proud and gracious people, started moving to Abu Dhabi three decades ago for work. Their language, a mixture of Arabian Gulf coastal dialect and classical Arabic, is seldom being transmitted to their children and is at risk of disappearing altogether when the older generation passes on.

But in non-urban cities with a slower pace of life poetry is recited in majlises and women and men learn traditional handicrafts and the way to cook local dishes. Many of those traditions are now disappearing because of the rapid urbanisation of culture.

Many majlises have been exchanged with the imported culture of coffee houses that serve tobacco called sheesha or hubbly-bubbly. Some say it is too benign a name for a carcinogenic import that is harming not just Emirati health but also our Emirati culture.

In suburban settings, on the other hand, many young Emiratis learn how to keep birds of prey, identify the fish that swim in the Arabian Gulf, and distinguish among various types of dates. Urban Emiratis, those thirty and under, are often loathe to be associated with such non-essential aspects of 21st-century life.

Of all seven emirates it is Abu Dhabi, by far the most affluent, that will probably be the biggest benefactor or victim, depending on which way you see it, of a huge population increase that is projected to take the city’s population to 3.1 million by 2030 from the present one million.

And like the more urban emirates of Dubai and Sharjah, Emirati culture will probably be a major casualty of this exponential jump. What is the UAE capital doing to combat such serious erosion? Quite a bit in fact, and its strategy seems to be novel and pre-emptive.

First, there is the Sheikh Zayed National Museum that is being designed by the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, Lord Norman Foster and his firm Foster Partners Ltd. The museum, to be located in the Cultural District of Saadiyat Island just 500 metres offshore from the capital city island of Abu Dhabi, will be dedicated not only to the country’s founder, its namesake, but also to various aspects of Emirati culture such as desert life and customs.

Second, Abu Dhabi established a National Center for Documentation and Research with the duty to spread awareness of the history of the UAE, conduct school visits and lectures, and safeguard historical documents. Such a center “inspires patriotism, as archives preserve the memories and historical register of the nation” according to its website.

Third, Abu Dhabi is also aggressively supporting the Poet of Millions competition in which nabati or traditional Arabian Peninsular dialect is the ticket to large monetary rewards. In fact, this popular and successful show is so notable that it recently made the front page of The New York Times newspaper.

Fourth, Abu Dhabi made sure that it does not sell land to non-Gulf nationals. Although it is not certain that this policy will persist in the future, it has acted to safeguard any terrestrial claims that expats may have in the emirate.

Rather than selling property and land outright, as is the case in Dubai, Ajman, Um Al Qaiwain, and Ras Al Khaimah (Sharjah and Fujairah are the two most strict emirates with regard to property sales), Abu Dhabi authorizes a 99-year lease for non-GCC citizens.

Fifth, in 2001 Abu Dhabi launched the Emirates Film Competition under the umbrella of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH). To the point of Emirati culture, condition number twenty states that “works may be submitted to the competition on the condition that they respect the aims of the competition; specifically, films must deal with Culture or U.A.E. Heritage.”

Additionally, in September 2009 Abu Dhabi hosted a meeting of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage “to discuss world cultural traditions that face an immediate risk of being wiped out.”

The UAE delegation supported the recognition of falconry by UNESCOand nominated the UAE traditional dances of Al Ayala and Al Ahaala for recognition by the international body. Abu Dhabi clearly realizes the danger of the disappearing UAE culture, and rather than battling globalization, Abu Dhabi is employing the strategy of using that unstoppable force to promote Emirati culture.

In the desert oasis of Al Ain, the capital recently multiplied its preservation efforts, and the results are starting to show. The preservation of Al Jahili Fort, for instance, was coupled with an exhibition of the history of Zayed the First who ruled the emirate in the late 19th century.

The fort also houses photographs taken by Wilfred Thesiger, one of the earliest Western explorers to the area known then as the Trucial States. Thesiger was embraced as one of our own by the people of the emirates who affectionately nicknamed the British visitor famous for crossing the Empty Quarter as Mubarak bin London.

Abu Dhabi, the city in the UAE that is standing to gain or lose most from the influx of foreigners searching for a better life, may have an advantage over Dubai, the pioneering Gulf city, in that it can learn from other’s experiences and limit practices such as foreign ownership of land and employ a pre-emptive rather than reactionary effort to preserve Emirati identity.

And yet it is ironic that the city is becoming so expensive that many of its inhabitants, including Emirati nationals (those people it is keen on protecting the most) are forced either to live outside it or to share a rented accommodation within it.

More than a decade after Sheikh Zayed’s declaration that he was surprised to learn that Emiratis are forced to live in rented accommodation, the urbanisation of Emirati culture only seems to be gaining momentum. Emiratis like the carpooling Aisha have been trying in their own way to cope with this new culture in their attempts to follow the job market.

It may be too soon to tell if Abu Dhabi’s strategy of embracing globalisation and employing it as a tool to preserve Emirati culture will be a success. It is likely that as the Emirate heads to tripling its overall, mostly foreign, population, only parts of it will prevail in this rolling cultural experiment.

Finally, there may come a time soon when Emiratis realize that they have exchanged too much, too soon, for too little. By then the old generation would have passed on, and it will be a case of salvaging what is left of Emirati culture in a way like walking into a burned house to salvage what the fire has spared.

On the one hand, urbanization may turn out to be, as many fear, the fire that is slowly eating up Emirati culture, leaving many of us helpless to stop it and left wondering what will be left to salvage. On the other hand, it may be the Emirati culture’s best chance of survival in a globalized world.

(Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a UAE-based commentator on Arab affairs. He tweets as @SultanAlQassemi)

UK: Google predicts the Internet could help create 365,000 new UK jobs by 2015

salama — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:24:57 +0000

www.thenextweb.com

Economists based in Google have predicted that an Internet boom in the UK could open as many as 365,000 jobs within the next five years, with the Internet accounting for a fifth of the regions GDP growth, The Telegraph reports.

Google’s European Vice-President and chief of search operations Philipp Schindler believes that despite European businesses fighting to remain afloat during a period of economic uncertainty, Internet-based or Internet-related companies that use the web successfully were still growing strongly.

“A study by McKinsey has shown that in France and in a mature economy like the UK, the internet is responsible for a fifth of GDP growth. In the UK, given the rate of job creation that economists associate with a rise in GDP, this translates into an expectation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs thanks to the internet,” he said.

“And I think that is on the conservative side. That is what could be achieved by putting a focus on this sector. That feels to me like a sizeable number.”

Schindler is in the UK to help drive Germany’s mid-sized sector, helping to drive the amount of goods exported by businesses in the region. He noted that for every pound that is imported, the UK exports “close to £3 in e-commerce goods and services”. He adds that the “UK is already doing relatively well in that sector but the ratio could be significantly higher”.

Google drives home the point, backed by other technology companies, that businesses across Europe need to understand a series of digital “mega-trends” if they want to be able to reap the full benefits of what the Internet can offer. Recent trends include a shift to mobile, the adoption of Cloud-based technologies and online media could all help encourage innovation.

Schindler also noted Google’s plans to expand its presence in the UK:

“The UK is our second largest market in the world. In a lot of areas in the UK businesses are defining the online world globally, they are innovation leaders. In terms of investing in the UK, we will obviously continue to invest in the UK – on the engineering side and the business side. We’ve just opened our third office here in Soho, it has a lot of seats.”

USA: Natural and Organic F&B expected to grow

hamid — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:58:55 +0000

Jun 13, 2011 – PRNewswire

Headlines are rewritten for editorial clarity. The original story and headline begin below.

Original Headline: Natural and Organic Food and Beverage Market to Double by 2015

CHICAGO, June 13, 2011 (PRNewswire) – Far outpacing growth in conventional groceries, U.S. retail sales of natural and organic foods and beverages rose to nearly $39 billion in 2010, an increase of 9% over the previous year, and 63% higher than sales five years earlier, according to “Natural and Organic Foods and Beverages in the U.S., 3rd Edition” by market research publisher Packaged Facts.

The next several years are forecast to experience even greater growth. Packaged Facts projects 2011 will serve as a jump-start for the market as sales ultimately increase by a dramatic 45% by the end of the year. Overall projections are that the market will grow by 103% between 2010 and 2015, with total annual sales exceeding $78 billion in 2015.

Helping to fuel growth are recent moves by major marketers and manufacturers seeking to capitalize on consumer demand for these products. At the beginning of 2011, Frito-Lay North America, the $13 billion snack food division of PepsiCo, announced that by the end of the year, approximately half of its product portfolio will be made with all natural ingredients. The change will affect three of Frito-Lay’s biggest brands: Lay’s potato chips, Tostitos tortilla chips, and SunChips multigrain snacks.

“The Frito-Lay products will in themselves have an enormous impact on the natural foods marketplace, and Frito-Lay’s move will spur other manufacturers to invest more heavily in producing natural and organic products,” says David Sprinkle, research director and publisher of Packaged Facts. “Since Frito-Lay’s announcement, Kraft Foods and Coca-Cola have made strategic moves to better position themselves in the market.”

A February 2011 Packaged Facts consumer survey found that 38% of the U.S. adults who are grocery shoppers buy organic groceries, and 58% buy packaged food products marketed as “all-natural” (but not organic). Furthermore, the Packaged Facts survey found that 37% of all respondents “strongly” (12%) or “somewhat” (25%) agree that they seek out natural and organic foods and beverages.

“Natural and Organic Foods and Beverages in the U.S., 3rd Edition” examines sales and growth potential, identifying key issues and trends that will affect the marketplace through 2015. Extensive analysis via both proprietary Packaged Facts data and syndicated national consumer panel data gauges consumer attitudes and purchasing, retail shopping patterns, and media usage and preferences, both traditional and social.

The report also includes comprehensive coverage of new product trends across dozens of categories; analysis and images of products and print ads; and profiles of trend-making marketers and retailers. Interviews with industry experts round out the market analysis, filling out the context of the broader industry, social, economic and psychographic drivers of consumer behavior and product purchasing.

For further information, please visit: http://www.packagedfacts.com/Natural-Organic-Foods-6057035/.

About Packaged Facts — Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer goods and retailing, foods and beverages, demographics, pet products and services, and financial products. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services. To learn more, visit: www.packagedfacts.com. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Opinion: An Islamic approach to ethical consumerism

salama — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:13:53 +0000

By Zahed Amanullah, June 8, 2011

As the halal marketplace and industry matures, we are seeing more efforts to incorporate ethical values in halal products. And as American halal food consumers demand a deeper spiritual connection with their food and the processes by which they are produced, they have also demonstrated that they are willing to pay for them.



	Happy cow, happy consumer

London, England

Until recently, halal foods were defined only by ritual slaughter and mass-market production. But today’s ethical consumer trends are making the industry take a second look at what halal really means.

Ask any number of Muslims about the meaning of halal (when it comes to food) and you’re likely to get as many answers as there are cuisines. While the methods and conditions under which halal meat was prepared were relatively uncontroversial or unchallenged a generation ago, increasing consumer awareness has resulted in a demand for greater transparency in standards and production.

According to recent surveys, American Muslim consumers are much more brand conscious (70%) and much less price sensitive than in the past. As their identities gel, over 80% want to buy brands that support their Muslim or cultural identity. At the same time, 75% want brands that make them feel part of a wider community, not a marginal one. These seemingly divergent requirements are worth a deeper look since they are actually the driver of convergence of Islamic and Western values, as it pertains to natural food ingredients, sustainable farming practices, socially responsible ethics, and environmental stewardship.

Recent trends in all natural and organic American food products have given some indication of what American Muslim consumers are increasingly seeking as their lifestyles converge. Over the past few decades, we have seen an emphasis on ethical consumerism and values-based food products. Organic and natural foods, which contain no additives, preservatives, or unhealthy processing, have been growing at 20% per year since the early 1990s and in the U.S. alone generate over $30 billion in sales. Sales of socially responsible products that promote just practices for workers’ rights and socially responsible ethics, such as FairTrade, have proved to be very compelling economic and social enterprises in the US. And environmentally friendly products, which offer recycled packaging and energy efficient alternatives, have also made a positive impact with consumers. American consumers have proven that they are willing to pay a premium for products with these values. Wouldn’t affluent American Muslim consumers, who are 40% more affluent than the average American, do likewise?

For pioneering halal food manufacturers and certifiers who have been keeping track of all these trends, serving this market means creating a “faith-based” approach that goes beyond the conventional rules-based criteria for religious slaughter. This approach emphasizes restoring sacredness and nurturing a spiritual connection with food, creating an emotional connection with food and culture that should appeal to Muslim and non-Muslim consumers alike. These values are often called “tayyib,” an explicit reference in the Qur’an that refers to what is good, wholesome, and pure among what is permissible (halal).

Exploring tayyib more broadly, a case can also be made for a set of common values in business ethics that meets or exceeds the highest standards set in mainstream industry. This includes applying Islamic principles of economic and social justice (diversity, empowerment, transparency), equity to stakeholders (fair wages for employees, fair trade globally), and a sense of responsibility to the environment, consumers, and society at large.

This tayyib approach also warrants more attention to the basics of ritual slaughter itself. Although mechanical slaughter has been increasingly allowed by some halal certifiers to cope with price and volume constraints, the traditional method of slaughtering by hand has found strong advocates, especially since it is a much cleaner and holistic alternative to the unhealthy commercial meat production and factory farming methods present in mainstream America today. “Human beings can calm the animal down before slaughter and reassure the animal with a human touch,” says Abdullah Nana, head of Halal Advocates of America, an organization that monitors halal processing. ”The recitation of the name of Allah by a human being at the time of slaughter is a requirement for Muslims, and we firmly believe that the name of God serves to calm the animal and reassure it before slaughter.”

Such an approach has its supporters within the mainstream industry. Consider the efforts of Temple Grandin, a doctor of animal science at Colorado State University and a pioneering animal welfare expert. Grandin has researched unstunned hand slaughtering and found scientific evidence to prove that it to is less stressful to the animal than stunning (though other less scientific studies used by stunning advocates argue otherwise). Additionally, she found that more pain and stress was caused to the animal from the way it was held during slaughter (usually hung), which has led to her proposals of alternate methods of restraint. Adds Nana, “I know of organic meat plants who implement hand slaughter and have a tremendous appreciation of ritual slaughter as a whole and the alignment of this slaughter method with the values the company stands for.”

For American Halal, a Stamford, CT-based premium halal company, these tayyib values were designed into their Saffron Road brand from the ground up. Starting with a commitment to use hand slaughtered meat with transparent and verifiable standards, they endeavoured to use all natural (antibiotic free or certified organic) ingredients with no additives, preservatives, or hormones; animals humanely raised in a safe, clean, and comfortable environment; sustainably and locally raised on smaller family owned farms; and 100% vegetarian animal feed with no hormones, antibiotics, or rendering. All of these have been implemented at considerable expense and risk, particularly so for an early stage company like American Halal.

“The spiritual essence behind this 1,400 year old Islamic tradition of zabihah and tayyib harvesting is the belief that all our livestock should be given proper dignity and treated humanely so that the livestock we eat are raised in a safe, clean, comfortable environment,” says Adnan Durrani, CEO of American Halal. “By sourcing only from smaller family owned farms and adhering to zabihah or hand slaughtering methods, we at Saffron Road believe we can then conduct this in a holistic manner, to better serve our Creator while still being mindful of our core sustainable values. For sure our halal sacred cow is that we shall never fall into the questionable practice of machine slaughter – for us, this would be a sacrilege in terms of our core values.”

And in order to effectively translate these values to a wider audience, a broader ethical approach would include the highest standards of mainstream certification in a number of areas. For Saffron Road, American Halal sought participation in the Non-GMO Project (which opposes genetic modification) and became the only halal certified brand to meet the guidelines of Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC), a US animal welfare organization which Temple Grandin is the advisor to, insuring Saffron Road explicitly follows Grandin’s animal welfare philosophy in their treatment of animals.

To complete the process, Saffron Road sought a mainstream retailer that embodies the same ethos and values – Austin, TX-based Whole Foods Market, the largest natural food retailer in the world. Saffron Road became the first halal product line to be offered nationally at the premium natural food chain, which incidentally was the only U.S. food retailer to raised its profit forecast to record levels for 2011, in spite of slumps elsewhere in the U.S. food retail market. Sales of Saffron Road have also been robust and Whole Foods has recently increased Saffron Road’s shelf space by 400% and is adding 11 new products for Ramadan, 2011.

As the halal marketplace and industry matures, we may see more efforts at incorporating tayyib values in halal products. As American halal food consumers continue to demand a deeper spiritual connection with their food and the processes by which they are produced, they have also demonstrated that they are willing to pay for them. It’s a message that hearts and minds of the global halal industry cannot afford to ignore.

Zahed Amanullah is Executive Editor of altmuslim.com. He also serves on the Board of Directors for American Halal.

USA: Ethnic Food Markets are Expanding

salama — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:51:46 +0000

Sacramento : CA : USA | Apr 14, 2011

By AnneHart – All Voices

How Would You Like to Generate and Market Ethnic Food Market Reports Online for a Living? Ethnic Food Markets are Expanding.

If you enjoy discussing and researching food trends, you can earn thousands of dollars at home online generating and marketing ethnic food market reports on your computer and selling them for more than $3,000 each to industries. The ethnic food market is expanding dramatically to fill the needs of diverse cultures in the US as well as fulfill the food requirements of immigrants and the children of immigrants keeping food traditions from the culture. This not only extends to human food but to pet foods as well.

You’d be surprised as what these reports sell for online. And some of the information you’d gather from your report comes from government reports, studies, and publications.

The business could be done entirely at home online. You do your research, generate a report, and email it to the customer after the client pays you, for example, online through PayPal or through a credit or debit card.

Here’s how it works. First you research the most current information your potential customer might need on the ethnic food industry. You begin by writing to or talking to owners of stores and online services that import, develop, process, or sell ethnic foods, including recipes. You talk or write to the manufacturers of packaged foods that sell to a wide ethnic market.

The starting point begins with market research. Then you collect the facts into reports. The goal of such a business is to provide insight for clients looking for insight as well as hindsight. The market trends figures provide the hindsight. Your clients follow the money.

You’ll have to provide six categories of information. These would be 1. analyses, 2. product and market trends, 3. new opportunities, 4. projections, 5. sales figures and information, and 6. marketing strategies. The goal of these reports you could generate would be to analyze trends so clients would be able to get a handle on foresight. So your strategy would be to provide insight, hindsight, and foresight by showing clients the trends, sales figures, and marketing strategies.

It’s all about food. But for what informational and how-to details would your clients be willling to pay you $3,000 per report? They’d pay that amuch for specific details on 1. market share, 2 . segmentation, 3. size and growth, including projected growth of the USA’s ethnic food markets. You’re going to have to put facts together in a report and sell the report as a package deal for various prices ranging from more than $2,000 to more than $3,000 for each report. And you’ll sell to industry, not to general consumers looking for food information.

What industry wants to know from you in a report on ethnic food is the latest information. When it comes to selling, marketing, and promoting ethnic food in the USA, you’ll have the research the most up-to-date information on Latin and Asian foods and ingredients that go into Latin and Asian foods.

This includes finding the most current information on the most calescent spice trends. One of your best selling points would be if you developed reports targeting global flavor profiles.

For example, a report could emphasize what ethnic foods, or going into more depth, what flavors, are selling world wide. You could generate reports on whether more packaged foods or food ingredients are sold in the USA or globally, or what the sales figures and trends are regarding cooking a specific type of ethnic food in the USA.

Read marketing and trend reports that already are selling widely in the food industry, including the government reports and statistics. Your reports would research the newest facts and explain to customers what ingredient, food, or trend in eating at home or at restaurants is heating up American palates along with what ingredients to make those foods are being sold at supermarkets, ethnic groceries, online, and through health food stores.

With new immigrants groups that weren’t in the USA in large numbers 50 years ago, comes grocery stores to fulfill the cooking and eating needs of not only those immigrants and their grandchildren, but also to please American palates not of that ethnic group. For example, what are the newest trends in Asian foods that are eaten by non-Asians in the USA and overseas?

What are the marketing trends and sales like regarding Middle Eastern foods, Latin American foods, and Slavic foods consumed by people inside and outside of the corresponding ethnic group? Are Latin-American foods best marketed on TV and radio stations broadcast in Spanish? How many non-Latin Americans are buying and consuming Latin-American food products, fresh produce and meats, packaged foods, or separate cooking ingredients and publications?

Kosher foods and Halal foods both are bought by the increasing Muslim populations in America, especially in the Midwest (Dearborn, Michigan for example). New, Halal food industries are increasing in areas where there are Muslim neighborhoods with persons from a wide variety of nations, for example, Indonesia, the Middle East, the Caucasus Mountains, parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, and parts of India. A variety of cultures are interested in buying Halal food. And Kosher food is bought by persons from a wide variety of backgrounds that prefer Kosher foods for spiritual or individual reasons.

When it comes to specialty pet foods, there’s the ethnic pet food market to explore that grew out of demand from the ethnic human food industry. What manufacturers sell ethnic pet foods? You might research this industry. One example would be to generate current informational reports on ethnic pet foods.

Some veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to animals increases their risk of getting cancer and other degenerative diseases. As a result, natural and organic pet food manufacturers have been increasing in number, including manufacturers offering Kosher pet food for dogs and cats and organic food for dogs and cats.

For example, the market for kosher dog and cat food is expanding. Kosher-meat based pet food products have the US Patent number, 6277435. A pet food composition is provided for domesticated cats and dogs which contains from about 15 to 60 weight percent of kosher meat.

According to the Free Patents Online site, The composition of kosher pet food further includes a source of carbohydrates, a source of fiber, and a source of fat. The pet food composition is fed to domesticated cats and dogs for which a kosher diet is recommended for health and/or spiritual reasons.

Kosher Pets is the only patented dog food endorsed for use in a kosher home. Foods are made with human-grade ingredients such as liver, vegetables, chicken, and olive oil. KosherPets’ foods and treats for dogs are rich in essential Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids and probiotics; while being free of added hormones, antibiotics, or artificial preservatives. Kosher Pets also offers a special “Kosher for Passover” line of pet food.

There’s a reason why these specialized dog and cat foods are made for special holidays. According to the site, “Probably the most significant observance related to Passover involves the removal of chametz. Chametz includes anything made from wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt. Not only is it forbidden to eat chametz during Pesach; but it is also forbidden to derive benefit from it by feeding it to pets! KosherPets’ KfP products will keep you in the clear.”

The Kosher dog food market has thrived for more than 30 years. For example, you can research an article on kosher-style dog food manufacturing, “Renicom’s Mother Klein’s Kosher Style dog food“, Advertising Age, p. 24, Feb. 26, 1979. There are several dog and cat food manufacturers that produce kosher food for pets (dogs and cats), for example Wheeling, Illinois-based Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company that produces a line of wet kosher pet food. Evanger’s doesn’t use any grains as fillers.

According to an April 13, 2003 article, “Observe: Kosher Food for Your Pet,” published in the Chicago Tribune (online edition) by William Hageman, Evanger’s received “the endorsement of the Chicago Rabbinical Council and began selling the food in December” of that year. “The biggest seller has been the chicken flavor (ingredients: whole dressed chicken, water for processing).”

Other kosher dog foods include chicken rice dinner; beef; beef, chicken and liver; lamb and rice dinner; and chopped turkey. There’s also a kosher seafood dinner for cats. Ethnic food markets go back in time and are thriving today. Also see the article, “The challenge of keeping kosher,” Stephen Bennet, Progressive Grocer, vol. 69(8), p.149(3), Jul. 1999. You might open a report-generating business specializing only in specialty foods.

Check out the Specialty Food Magazine site. There is a wide variety of cultures, each with a specialty ethnic food. Then there’s the holistic food markets, the vegan and vegetarian, the organic, special diets markets, cheeses, wines, beers, and the multi-ethnic spices and herbs markets. It’s difficult to run out of constantly current material on human or pet food markets. With increasing Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim communities and ethnic specialties in food, there are the Halal food markets as well to research and also Indian, Thai, Carribbean, Cajun, and Latin American spices, herbs, and foods.

On researching the Halal markets, see Tom’s of Maine that offers, with product certification, both Halal and Kosher foods. Halal is an Arabic word meaning lawful or permitted. Since 2006, all Tom’s of Maine products have carried the Halal endorsement, which certifies that they are made in accordance with Islamic guidelines under the supervision of the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA).

Also, Tom’s of Maine products have carried the kosher certification since 1990. Most of their products are manufactured under the supervision of the Kashruth Division of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and are certified as kosher and pareve. Their site notes,”that only our deodorants are kosher for Passover, and that some new products may not yet bear the OU Kosher symbol.”

If you’re looking for an ethnic guide to the USA Muslim food market, check out Zabinah.com. The site reports that it’s the world’s largest guide to Halal restaurants and products where the viewer can find nearby Halal food. Globally, more Halal groceries, food distributors, and restaurants are opening, especially in the UK. For example, Subway sandwich franchise has successfully operated halal-only versions of its stores in the UK.

Zabihah.com has grown worldwide from its North American roots. The site notes that it also serves English speakers/travellers or those for whom English is not a primary language. According to the site, “there are millions of Muslims around the world who are unable to use an English site or would simply prefer it in their native tongue.” The Zabihah.com site reports it is “now ready to open up our first few non-English language sites to beta testing.”

Specializations in any one area of ethnic food offers a wide variety of choices. You might open a specialty generating marketing reports service focusing on European foods, including the latest generation of artisan cheeses from Switzerland. You could focus on cheeses that are very popular worldwide such as the traditional alpines. These cheeses offer a variety of taste experiences and promising sales opportunities for which you might generate reports.

Another field of ethnic foods to emphasize is the modified Mediterranean diet foods, or check out the Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, or Scandinavian food ethnic markets. Which markets are expanding? The Asian and Latin American ethnic food industry is growing rapidly.

You could emphasize Asian foods such as Indian foods, herbs, and spices, Japanese or Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Pacific Islands, Philippines, Vietnamese, Korean, or foods from Australia and New Zealand. Some smaller groceries in the USA feature foods from the UK. Others have African foods or African American, Cajun, Tex-Mex, or any other ethnic group that wants traditional food ingredients or foods in the USA.

Focus on an area of expanding sales. Your research will tell you which ethnic food area is expanding the fastest at a particular time.

Pick your ethnic food specialty, and research as many possible aspects of that market with a focus. Then generate a report that will give people in the ethnic food industry information that they can’t find anywhere else without the same research effort you’ve done. That’s what makes the reports worth several thousands dollars each.

The most important points: the information has to be current, not yet in the media, and offer practical guidelines. The benefits you offer clients is to give sales figures, trends, and other new information so your clients won’t get blindsided early on by making the wrong choices.

Clients from the food industry will buy your reports if your current information helps them solve problems and resolve issues. Executives in the food industry want a system. And they want to see measurable results.

Sometimes such reports become “frontloading ancillaries” that is, like trade journals and industrial newsletters summarizing bits of information. But reports are more in-depth. They have to be different in that they are more current and contain much more information than what’s in a newsletter or trade journal article.

Informational reports have to contain guidelines that readers easily can follow step-by-step. Clients want to know trends, changes, what sells best, and how to solve problems when it comes to what food is safest and healthiest. Include the ethnic foods cookbooks and publications.

The only way to write a report based on your own research is to read industrial reports that you can find in online databases and in the industrial section of public libraries and university libraries. More information can be obtained from trade associations and the government. But your information has to be more recent and be more in depth if a client is willing to pay thousands for one marketing and trends report with up-to-date figures, trends, and facts.

You also find information from the food industry. Sometimes you’ll have to call manufacturers and look at their own marketing reports. Interview people that study business trends in ethnic foods.

Go to the trade shows and talk to vendors. For example, carrot ice cream is popular in Japan. Could it sell in the USA? Curry carrot ice cream is gaining popularity in New York, in homes, would it do well commercially if sold in stores? See the book, Asian Ice Cream for You and Your Kids by Arron Liu.

Would almond-based non-dairy frozen dessert sell well in supermarkets as almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, and nut milk are selling great currently across the country? What specialty and special-diet products are being offered in some US supermarkets, such as no-salt added canned wild salmon?

When will specialty and special-diet foods be available in all areas? What are the trends and sales figures on these products?

For example, pomegranate in jars have sold for years in Middle Eastern-style groceries in the USA, largely unnoticed by the general American public until reports of health benefits of pomegranate juice emerged in the media based on scientific studies. Now major supermarkets carry several brands of pomegranate juice. It’s not only found in ethnic groceries anymore.

Besides having a line in supermarkets, the organic fruit farms also sell pomegranate juice online, pomegranate extract, and other types of pomegranate. Another area to research is the snack food market, including ethnic snack foods and ingredients.

If you research the correct sources of current information, you could keep finding new trends to generate reports. Pay attention to the changing economic scenes. You might specialize in ethnic food for humans or pets. In addition to ethnic food markets, there also are the holistic food markets for people. There’s also an expanding market for holistic food featuring canned food for dogs and cats. Read the trade journals in your specialty before you look for any other information.

Some examples of manufacturers of specialized dog food include the Holistic Animal Care brand, Azmira Nutritionals Canned Dog Formula. Azmira was voted “Best Canned Food in the Whole Dog Journal” August 2000 and 2001. Another brand, Evanger’s also sells to an international food market as well as in the USA. Read the April 25, 2005 Chicago Tribune online article, “Dogs Participate in Passover Seder.”

Getting back to the ethnic food market for humans, it’s widely expanding to cater to the diverse tastes nationally and globally. So there’s room for you to specialize in any one aspect or cover several of the ethnic food markets when you generate reports for the industry.

Look at the Ethnic Food Market Reports below offered by The Packaged Facts Collection. You can open a home-based online business researching any aspect of the food markets and generate reports that you sell online to customers in the industry.

Attend the expos and trade shows to look for vendors and manufacturers that could become your potential clients. Here’s what the Ethnic Food Market Reports from The Packaged Facts Collection offers to clients. If you want to generate reports for the food industry on any aspect of it, ethnic or other, realize that the question will come out as to what you’ll charge your clients. Don’t understimate the amount of research that goes into your report. Information has to be so new that the media haven’t reported on it yet. See the site, Published Price MarketTrend: Kosher- and Halal-Certified Foods in the U.S.

MarketTrend: Kosher- and Halal-Certified Foods in the U.S. delivers an in-depth analysis of the market for kosher and halal foods in the United States, with an emphasis on opportunities in the mainstream market. The report discusses the many similarities between kosher and halal foods: Both involve | more… Search inside this report. Also see the site, May 1, 2009 $2,750.00 MarketTrend: The U.S. Market for Chef- and Foodservice-branded Food Sold at Retail

The popularity of celebrity chefs and restaurant culture among consumers continues to grow, driven in large part by the dominance of food-related media, such as television programming, magazines and websites, and cookbooks. The big question is whether consumers will even give a hoot about brand mystique in the midst of | more. See the site, May 1, 2009 $2,500.00 Snack Foods Culinary Trend Mapping Report:, Vol. 5, No. 6.

Time-crunched Americans are snacking more than ever, and in a serious way. In lieu of more traditional meals, consumers are turning to snacks as meal stand-ins — oatmeal bars and bottled smoothies in the car for breakfast; a container of yogurt and a handful of nuts at the desk for | more. Search inside this report. Also see, Apr 1, 2009 $3,300.00 Frozen Foods in the U.S., 2nd Edition.

To stretch their food dollars, cash-strapped consumers have been reining in their spending and changing the way they shop. Many are trading down—going to restaurants less often for dinner, reconsidering which products really are necessities, and switching to brands and product types with higher perceived value. | more. Search inside this report.

See, Apr 1, 2009 $3,600.00 Olive Oil in the U.S., 3rd Edition. Olive oil has long had a treasured place in the minds and hearts of the many civilizations and cultures throughout the Mediterranean. The Greek poet Homer referred to it as “liquid gold.” But today, it is a premium global commodity treasured on all continents partly for its historical mystique. | more. See the site, Apr 1, 2009 $2,250.00 Latino Foods: The Next Wave Culinary Trend Mapping Report.

Do you remember what you were doing when you first heard what is now a very famous factoid? Way back in 1992, Packaged Facts revealed a tantalizing bit of data: That year, American shoppers would spend more on salsa than on ketchup. That offered a vivid way of thinking about | more. Search inside this report. See the site, Feb 19, 2009 $3,300.00 Food Flavors and Ingredients Outlook 2009.

The dramatic economic events that unfolded on the world stage in 2008 were accompanied by fear, sheer panic and the realization that it is impossible to isolate serious problems on Wall Street from those on Main Street. With this as the backdrop heading into 2009, perceptions of the health | more. Feb 1, 2009 $2,950.00 Foodies in the U.S.: Five Cohorts: Foreign/Spicy, Restaurant, Cooks, Gourmet and Organic/Natural.

For food aficionados, food offers much more than nourishment. It offers a framework through which they can build relationships, make new friends, explore the world and even examine which behaviors are ethical. They use food to define who they are in greater society. The term foodie , which first appeared..See more. Check out this site, Jan 1, 2009 $4,000.00 Foodies in the U.S.: Foreign/Spicy Foodies.

For food aficionados, food offers much more than nourishment. It offers a framework through which they can build relationships, make new friends, explore the world and even examine which behaviors are ethical. They use food to define who they are in greater society. The term foodie, which first appeared in…| more. Search inside this report.

Jan 1, 2009 $1,999.00 Where Are They Now: A Look Back Culinary Trend Mapping Report

After four years of exploring the food world, it was time to revisit the many trends identified and profiled in the Culinary Trend Mapping Report to see how they have moved along the Trend Map. Most of the trends spotted years ago have made the kind of progress the Report | more…

Apr 1, 2008 $3,000.00 Hand-Held Foods Culinary Trend Mapping Report. Convenience has been a driver of portable food innovations for centuries. Meat pies, for example, existed in pre-medieval times, one of the earliest forms of food to go. Even Romans were able to buy “fast food” on the street. So, it’s not surprise that consumers are continually seeking solutions for | more. Search inside this report. Also see: Jan 30, 2008 $2,250.00 MarketLooks: The U.S. Market for Hispanic Foods and Beverages.

AnneHart is based in Sacramento, California, United States of America, and is Anchor for Allvoices

Opinion: Of Faith, Finance, Food and fashion

hamid — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:30:40 +0000

By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters

Source: Islamic Finance 2.0, Business Times

RAFI-UDDIN Shikoh is passionate about empowering businesses to become global brands with socially responsible impact.

He is the founder and CEO of DinarStandard(TM). He has 15 years of marketing strategy, e-business strategy and technology management experience with small to Fortune 500-sized companies.

Rafi-uddin is a frequent speaker on innovation, marketing, social business and Muslim customer strategies. He has presented at prestigious industry conferences at Oxford University, Harvard University, IIUM Malaysia and others.

Prior to DinarStandard, Rafi-uddin had been a vice-president with Marsh Inc, a global risk-brokerage firm, where he led and successfully delivered multi-million-dollar knowledge management and marketing technology-related initiatives.

He had previously served as a senior e-business consultant at a Boston-based firm. In addition, he has also served as a marketing director for a communications training and sports media consulting company.

Rafi-uddin has an MBA from UNC-Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, and a BSc. in Marketing from Southwest State University, Minnesota, USA.

He was born in Pakistan and spent 14 years of his early schooling in the Sultanate of Oman.

Q: What is Dinar Standard about and when and why did you start this offering?

A: Two questions prompted DinarStandard’s beginnings: First, why are there barely any global brands/ innovations from a quarter of the world’s population – the Muslim world. This includes advanced economies such as Malaysia, whose brands such as Proton or ventures from the MSC have not been able to gain major global mind-share. Secondly, what role can and does Islam play as a source of strength in modern business dealings?

DinarStandard was started in late 2004 as an online publication to strategically and analytically explore these questions.

Our reports such as the DS100 Top 100 Companies of the Muslim World, have received global media attention from The Economist to Arab News and we have also conducted reports relating to business ethics in Islam, role of intellectual property protection in Islam and others.

Today we have evolved to become a specialised research, advisory and business media firm empowering emerging Muslim markets for growth and global impact.

We are defining the ‘emerging Muslim markets’ as the inter-connected over US$7 trillion (RM21.35 trillion) OIC member country economies, the over US$1.8 trillion (RM5.49 trillion) global Muslim consumer market, and the over US$1 trillion (RM3.05 trillion) Islamic Finance industry. There is tremendous connectivity and opportunities that exist within these three segments and we feel that collectively they are as large as any other emerging market today.

Q: What is Muslim lifestyle? Is that like Christian Rock?

A: A rich tapestry of over 1.5 billion people associate themselves with the religion of Islam who are spread globally with varied cultures, languages and even the conceptions of their religion. Yet increasingly, this common denominator of their Islamic faith, which is a “way of life”, is playing a role in their “lifestyle” and consumer behaviour.

Yes, there is Muslim Rock, hip-hop, orchestra and with their own stars, such as Sami Yusuf, who have transcended national identities with a world-wide Muslim fan base. This “Muslim Lifestyle Market” goes well beyond music and covers all aspects from values-based education, media, travel, hospitality, fashion sectors, pharmaceuticals and the well acknowledged “Halal” food and Islamic Finance sectors.

Q: You have the DS-100, what is this index about and how many Malaysian companies?

A: The purpose of the DS100 (in its seventh year) is to portray a picture of the leading domestic business activities in the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) member countries as close as possible.

The DS100 aims to recognise companies that are leading the charge in the global competitive landscape and are making a significant impact on the well-being of their communities. Similar to Fortune Magazine’s ranking, the DS100 is based purely on the last end-of-year annual revenue figures.

The 2010 DS100 list includes 16 companies from Malaysia (second largest numbers, followed by 20 from Turkey.)

The Malaysia companies listed are led by Petronas (#3), Sime Darby (#21), Tenaga Nasional (#25), Maybank Group (#37) and YTL Corp (#42.) Proton (#99) was the last Malaysian company on the list.

Given the objective of the DS100, the ranking includes not only publicly-listed companies, but also government and private enterprises (for whom verifiable data is identified) to reflect their disproportionately significant roles in the Muslim world economies.

A DS100 Public list is being made available for indexing purposes.

Q: How are you approaching big-thinking innovation in these Muslim markets?

A: We know that innovation best practices exist and for years global consulting firms have been advising OIC companies on these strategies. Many clusters from MSC to Dubai Internet City have also existed, but with limited major results compared to the Google’s of the world.

To address this gap, we have have identified two major areas that need focus.

The first area is based on initial findings from a study we have under way that compares the most innovative companies globally with our DS100 list of Top 100 OIC-based companies.

We have identified at least three major, “chronic” gaps in the OIC corporate culture that are barriers to big-thinking innovation. These are (1) a corporate culture that fosters “fear of failure” at all levels ( 2) small thinking led by executive leadership and (3) a corporate culture that doesn’t foster “critical thinking.”

Our belief is that these areas need to be addressed in a way unique to the OIC environment. An example of our innovation strategy services is a workshop programme titled “Creativity Rehabilitation?” that addresses the lack of world-class business critical thinking across these markets with practical skills development.

The second major gap identified relates to “disingenuous” branding and relative lack of marketing sophistication.

Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, calls the most successful brands “Lovemarks” – ones that command customers love and respect. We believe, brands from the OIC, especially within the Islamic Finance and Muslim Lifestyle Markets lack their true values-driven soul and identity that would drive and build love and respect towards their solutions.

Here, we believe Muslim values such as “Halal” healthy, hospitality, community, family, equitable financing etc, present a great opportunity to build global love and respect for these brands.

The writer is Global Head of Islamic Finance for Thomson Reuters, based in New York.