Food Manufacturers Need To Focus On Halal Baby Food Market

Malaysian and other baby Halal food manufacturers have been making inroads in various international markets for quite some time now. The Jakim-certified baby Halal food companies have been selling their products in all parts of the world. However, more industry players in the baby Halal food market need to cater to the growing needs of Muslim consumers around the world.

However, one noticeable gap we see is that not many of these manufacturers have focused on the fast-growing halal baby food market internationally.  The global halal baby food market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.10% until 2023. Currently, it is a $5.1 billion market worldwide.

Main Drivers of The Halal Baby Food Market Growth Globally

The main drivers attributing to the recent growth of the Halal baby food market are as follows.

• The Muslim population is increasing, and, so is their disposable income worldwide
• Muslim parents are demanding more choices and tastes for their new-born babies
• Baby food sales are growing annually by over 9% worldwide
• More Muslim women are entering into workforce thus finding it difficult to breastfeed their babies or make baby food for their new-born babies themselves
• Consumers in the Middle East, Asia, and even Africa are demanding more choices in the Halal baby food segment of the food & beverage market
• Even some non-Muslim parents are now preferring Halal baby food due to its organic nature and the purity of the ingredients manufacturers are supposed to use in preparing Halal baby food
• The extended family system is crippling worldwide thus diminishing the chance for grandparents and other relatives to prepare food for new-born babies even among Muslims
• Multinationals and other baby food manufacturers are marketing their baby food products aggressively thus compelling even Muslim consumers to arrange baby food for their newborn kids from the available choices they have in the market.
• Consumers are becoming more quality-conscious in choosing baby food
• The number of Halal baby food products in the market is limited thus there is a lot of room for growth in this sector for specialty Halal baby food manufacturers

Potential In The Halal Baby Food Market

The Halal baby food market has great potential as there is a market gap in this segment. The data shows that the global Halal food market is largely served by multinationals such as Nestle and Heinz etc. However, due to the increasing demand in the Halal baby food sector recently, they have started focusing on the production and distribution of their products targeted to Muslim babies globally.

However, there is still a lot of room for growth for a newer player who is a specialist in the Halal baby food market instead of being a generalist producing all types of  Halal foods.

What Do You Need To Do To Enter Into The Halal Baby Food Market?

Entering the Halal baby food market may not be that different from that entering the Halal food & beverage market. If you are new to this industry, you may need to do the following.

Recommended Market Entry Strategy

• Discuss opportunities in the Halal baby food sector before entering into it with real consumers and industry professionals
• Carefully target which market(s) you want to start offering your products to at least in the beginning
• Assess the existing landscape of the segment to get a deeper understanding of where and how you fit in. You need to know how you can differentiate yourself from the existing players in the segment you are planning to serve
• Devise a comprehensive marketing and social media strategy to market your Halal baby food products
• Source alternative ingredients to  gelatine and other haram additives to make sure that you use Halal and ethical ingredients only
• Make sure that you follow the international baby food standards and trends so that you can reap the advantage of the emphasis on the organic movement going on globally
• Obtain Halal certification from a reliable certification body that is internationally recognized. Make sure that you never use haram ingredients in any of your offerings. Otherwise, you may ruin your chances of becoming a strong player in the target Muslim market.