FILIPINO exporters
booked sales of various halal food products totaling $19.91 million in
the recently concluded Halal World Expo 2008 in the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), said the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The
exporters that participated in the expo were AgriNurture Inc., Beaches
Farms and Trading Corp., C’Est La Vie Food Phil. Inc., Florence Foods
Corp., Guaranfood Manufacturing, Q-Phil Products International, RFM
Corp., Sr. Pedro Lechon Manok and Visayas Chamber of Mango Industry MPC.
The
DA noted that the positive response of the UAE buyers to Philippine
products bodes well for the efforts of the government to corner a chunk
of the $500-billion halal market.
Halal food are those prepared according to procedures that adhere to Islamic customs.
Local
agro-commercial firm C’est La Vie signed a supply and purchase contract
with the UAE buyers for processed tuna and processed mango products
worth $960,000 a year for a two-year period.
It also booked sales for cavendish and cardaba bananas and fresh mangoes.
Beaches
Farm and Trading Corp. signed contracts with the UAE buyers for white
table eggs worth $1.98 million a year for two years; and Florence foods
for its various food products worth $960,000 a year, also for two years.
It
also formalized contracts for the one-year supply to Iran of desiccated
coconuts worth $60,000; fresh cavendish bananas worth $1.08 million;
and canned pineapples worth $1.3 million.
The
DA said the Philippines has a competitive edge in the halal trade
because it is free of both the avian influenza, or bird-flu virus, and
the foot-and-mouth disease.
