The current world Muslim population has been estimated to be 19 billions, or 1 out of 4 persons in the world is a Muslim. It is estimated that the Muslim market is worth 800 billion to 1.2 trillion US dollars per year, a very significant new market.
Taiwan is an export-oriented vigorous industrial economy. Over the last several decades, it has always been able to produce and supply all kinds of relatively inexpensive products with excellent and stable quality, often catered for different markets. In the recent years, industries of various fields such as agriculture, seafood, processed food, food flavoring, healthy food, bio-tech, pharmaceutics, cosmetics, and even food machinery, have approached Mosques in Taipei, Taichung, and other cities for Halal certification. Nearly 1,000 enterprises have obtained Halal certificates for some of their products, which have been successfully exported to the global Muslim market. Thus, a very good foundation has been laid down for Taiwan’s Halal Industry to exploit.
Taiwan is also an open and multicultural society and enjoys a Muslim population of 50,000 people or approximately 0.2% of the overall population. Over 300,000 foreign Muslims (immigrants, workers, students, and travelers) visit Taiwan from more than 30 Muslim countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Middle East.
Due to the increase of Muslims visiting Taiwan in recent years, the government has made significant progress in aligning policies with the Islamic economy. In April 2017, the Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) entrusted the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) with establishing the Taiwan Halal Center, serving to promote Taiwan’s Halal industry globally and in parallel, create a local Muslim-friendly environment.