By contrast Australia operated under a disparate system of private certifiers without oversight from government officials.
Ritchie said the imprimatur of the Chinese government was potentially a valuable asset for the NZ meat industry.
“Here we have embedded it in a regulatory framework to ensure that it has real integrity and we can actually use it as a point of differentiation.”
Although China’s Muslim population was small at just 20 million it was projected to grow more quickly than the rest of the population of 1.3 billion people.
That was already being reflected in statistics showing the sheep population in the Muslim-dominated western China growing more quickly than any other region.
Ritchie said shoring up the NZ industry’s halal credentials put it in a good position to capitalise on further increases in demand.
“It is a very significant trade as it is but what it will do is underpin the integrity of that trade and hopefully by providing that assurance will encourage an increase in the trade as their population grows.”
Exports of halal meat to China were 77,672 tonnes in the year to September 2015, making it already NZ’s single biggest halal meat export market.
