Croatian companies took part in the World Halal Summit in Istanbul.
The World Halal Summit in Istanbul brought together in recent days more than 15,000 participants from 60 countries, and on its margins, an agreement was signed on the cooperation between the Halal Quality Certification Centre and Singapore’s Pure and Good Management, which opens the door to Croatian companies to enter the halal markets of Southeast Asia and China, reports HRT on November 27, 2017.
The second World Halal Summit was held in Istanbul from 23 to 25 November, bringing together many world-class halal experts who discussed the current situation on the halal market, announced the Islamic Community in Croatia on Sunday.
In mid-September, the 100th halal certificate in Croatia was presented to the Ljekovito Bilje company, making Croatia the regional leader in halal certification. It is essential that Croatia is part of the global halal trend, which is no longer just a matter of religion, but also an issue of health too, which is being increasingly recognised in non-Islamic countries as well, said Eugene Levterov, general manager of MHP Food Trading company from Dubai, a distributor which promotes, inspects and sells halal products.
Halal certificates have been awarded in Croatia since 2010 by the Islamic Centre’s Halal Quality Certification Centre, whose head, Dugonjić, said that the global halal market was valued at billions of dollars. “In Croatia, there is an increase in interest in certification. Our analysis shows that 49 percent of the companies which are halal-certified have increased their exports and profits. There is still a lot of development potential, and we hope the agreement with the Croatian Chamber of Commerce will contribute to that,” he said. Dugonjić said 66 food producers, 18 hotels, seven travel agencies, one catering company and one elementary school in Croatia had been awarded halal certificates and that negotiations were underway with several more.
The head of the Islamic Community in Croatia, Aziz Hasanović, said the 100th halal certificate in Croatia was important and underlined the excellent cooperation between the Islamic Centre Zagreb and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce in opening new markets and facilitating deals for Croatian companies.
The summit in Istanbul included more than 15,000 participants from 60 countries and about a hundred exhibition stands. One of the lectures was held by the director of the Halal Quality Certification Centre Aldin Dugonjić, who spoke about health tourism as part of the halal tourism. In his speech, he briefly presented the halal tourist offer of Croatia.
On the last day of the summit, a Croatian-Turkish business forum was organised by the Halal Quality Certification Centre, Discover Events, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Turkey. Keynote speeches were given by Dugonjić, representative of the Turkish Standardization Institute Betul Hidoroglu, and Zurimi bin Jumaat, the executive director of Pure and Good Management from Singapore.
Speakers stressed the specific steps that will be taken to connect the halal-certified companies from Croatia and Turkey, the United States, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Thailand.
The Croatian delegation included representatives from Geus, Milla, Podravka, Protect Pharma, Sweet Gabi, Svijet i More, the Faculty of Management in Tourism of the University of Rijeka, Tarmel, Vadeco, and Žitoproizvod.
