January 29, 2007

Purefoods- Hormel to venture into sale of halal goods

Philippine food conglomerate Purefoods Hormel Co. (PHC) said it would produce products according to Muslim specifications to target mainly the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Halal, Arabic for "permissible," means meat that hectares been slaughtered in the manner prescribed by the shari'a.

In a statement relayed to the Philippine Daily Tribune, the food firm said their corned beef and chunkee corned beef (corned beef chunks) products became the first and only Philippine brands to be recognised as halal by the UAE government.

The products are aimed at expanding the food company's marketing efforts in the Middle East.

They will go on sale at all supermarkets owned and operated by Al Maya Lals, one of the Arab country's largest retail chains.

Al Maya Lals owns and operates 19 supermarkets in some of the Emirate's busiest and most populous cities, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It has been the local distributor of Purefoods products since 1996.

Purefoods Chunkee Corned Beef and Purefoods Corned Beef were certified halal by the Islamic Da'wah Council of the Philippines, the only Halal-certifying body in the Philippines recognized by the UAE. It is also a member of the World Halal Council based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

PHC generates close to P50 million in annual sales from the UAE. In the past, it exported mostly non-halal products such as Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs which is considered the leading brand in the Philippines.