Italy: UAE, Italy promoting halal food certification

??(ANSAmed) – DUBAI, FEBRUARY 22 – The visit to the United Arab Emirates by a delegation from the Ministry for Economic Development and Invitalia, the government agency for the attraction of investments, has also been used to promote the certification of halal food, a new instrument focusing on the needs of Muslim clients, that opens up considerably to Muslim markets.

“The ministry is working on an ambitious project of halal certification, an instrument that allows a marriage of Italian excellence and the guarantee of production respecting Islamic rules, which brings significant potential for opening towards markets connected to precise religious principles,” the director of the department of trade internationalisation at the ministry, Patrizia Giarratana, told ANSA.

Halal Italia, the only Italian body for the voluntary certification of food and other products in line with legal Islamic requirements, which was created through a scheme proposed by Italy’s Islamic Religious Community (CO.RE.IS), has recently been recognised by the Emirati authorities and been signed up to the appropriate register. The recognition, which will shortly come into force, will open up the market of the entire Gulf area.

“It is an extremely significant result, considering that halal imports in the region reached 50 billion dollars in 2010,” said the chief executive of Halal Italia, Hamid Roberto Di Stefano.