SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian halal food exports grew about 10 percent in 2018, the country’s largest halal certification firm has said, despite fallout from a food sector scandal and a truckers’ strike that disrupted meat production last year.
FAMBRAS Halal estimates sales of Brazilian halal food, including chicken, honey and cheese, rose to almost $5 billion in the period despite the industry’s multiple woes, it said in a statement.
"We failed to grow more as we had a very complicated year,” Ali Hussein El Zoghbi, vice-president at the certification company, said in the statement.
Zoghbi cited the truckers’ strike last May that disrupted supplies and exports as well as a sprawling investigation into collusion to avoid safety checks in the food sector, which damaged the reputations of several major meat packers and led to trade bans.
Brazil is by far the world’s largest exporter of halal meat, which complies with Muslim dietary rules.