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Selling To China’s Muslims

September 15, 2022<br>Posted by Middle East Briefing

China represents a market of 30 million Muslims providing opportunities for Middle Eastern based exporters in a market worth US$100 billion.

In China, the Muslim population is estimated to be around 30 million, covering urban and rural areas of all provinces (regions) in China. These are mainly based for historic reasons in China’s Western provinces of Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei, Yunnan, Shandong, and Shanxi and are descendants of old Silk Road traders.

Significant Muslim populations have also built up in Anhui, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

Geographical Spread and Consumption Preferences

According to Chinese government records, there are 10 ethnic minorities in China which are predominantly Muslim. These are the Hui (48% of the officially tabulated Muslim population), Uygur (41%), Kazakh (6,1%), Dongxiang (2.5%), the Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Salar, Tajik, Bonan, and Tatar groups. Most Muslims in China are Sunni’s.

While the Uyghur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Uzbek, Tajik, and Tatar ethnic communities are mainly distributed in Xinjiang, the Hui, Dongxiang, Salar, and Bonan ethnic groups are mainly distributed in Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai provinces. These 10 ethnic minority groups make up about 20 percent of the total ethnic minority base in China.

Besides the majority Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the Hui community live primarily in three provinces – Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai.

Traditional Muslim consumption habits in Chinese communities like the Hui are centered around the core principle of ‘halal’, which focuses on the protection of people’s physical and mental health and avoiding food regarded as unclean and unhealthy in Islam. Ecological and environment friendly consumption is promoted.

Market Prospects – China’s Muslim Consumer Base

China’s Muslim communities are an important market for halal commerce and trade. Halal, or ‘permitted’ in Arabic and ‘Qingzhen’ (清真) in Chinese, defines the suitability of a particular product for consumption under Shariah law. Halal products should be compliant with guidelines for purity and hygiene and should not contain any derivatives of pork (which may be present in gelatin and emulsifiers) or alcohol. In the case of meat products, animals must be slaughtered according to procedures under Islamic law.

Within China there is no unified national standard for halal certification, but there are various local regulations that contain relevant provisions. (See our article here on halal certification and relevant rules.)

In general, China’s halal food industry is in a stage of rapid growth with promising development prospects. It is estimated that by early 2023, the market size of China’s halal food industry will reach 380 billion Dirhams (US$103 billion). This is because while the Muslim population only eat halal food and prefer buying products with halal certification, non-Muslim consumers are not excluded from halal products. For certain products, such as milk, it is accepted throughout China that those with halal certification represent a higher quality standard.

However, it must be noted that while the concept of halal is not limited to food products, China only recognizes halal as applied to foods of meat, milk, and edible oil. The Chinese government has forbidden the “expansion of halal to other fields outside the field of food”.

Yet, according to Islamic law, and as is the case internationally, the principles of halal apply to all kind of consumer goods and services, including food, cosmetics, banking and finance, travel, and pharmaceuticals, among others.

This gap creates opportunities for the export of halal products and services targeting Chinese Muslim consumers, and the general Chinese market – if they meet the respective Chinese national and local regulatory and technical standards. For instance, China has enforced new rules on import and export food safety from January 1, 2022. The new rules detail customs requirements on overseas food safety assessment and inspection, registration and filing of importers and exporters, product labeling, and food safety risk management. See our article here for more information.

China’s Halal and Muslim Food Markets

Xinjiang and the popularity of its cuisine

Xinjiang (officially, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)) is the biggest market for halal food in China, as the province hosts a large Muslim population. There are about 12 million ethnic Uyghurs resident in this province, most of practice Islam.

Xinjiang dominates China’s halal food industry by sales revenue (17.06%) followed by Henan (14.24%) and Ningxia (6.65%). In the last decade, the halal food industry in...