The largest by far was Brazil’s BRF’s joint investment, with Qatar Investment Authority, in Turkey’s leading poultry supplier Banvit in 2017.

In 2018, Mitsubishi’s investment in UAE’s Al Islami Foods further showed the strong multinational investment appetite for driving OIC-based production in halal food.

Food security and diversification is a common theme running through many of the largest OIC-based investments, notably in Oman, Jordan and Kuwait, where a combined $86 million was invested directly, across four transactions, by local investment firms in domestic meat producers and food processors.

While deal activity is comparatively low, the transactions show how public investment funds can drive economic diversification and the creation of Islamic economy leaders, either through supporting multinationals or providing funds to local investment firms.

The level of activity in non-OIC countries, however, shows the growing interest in the halal food trade, especially from China.

China has placed significant effort in developing its halal food industry, with $47.8 million in disclosed investments across four transactions in food processing companies, with substantial involvement from regional governmental investment funds, supporting China’s broader halal industry.

There have been promising investments in the UK, U.S. and France, where there are sizeable Muslim populations, with $37 million in investment across two disclosed transactions, and two investments in France where values were not disclosed.

There has been limited investment from the OIC region in rapidly growing and innovative producers in non-OIC countries. Such cross-border investments are imminent and will transform the halal food industry.

For the full report and analysis download the pdf copy of the State of the Global Islamic Economy 2018/19 from HERE.