The ambition of Saleh Abdullah Lootah, the managing director of Al Islami Foods, matches that of Dubai itself.
“We want to be number one. We want to be the Nestlé of the halal food business,” he declares.
Just as the emirate has set itself a three-year target to be the hub of the global Islamic economy, so Mr Lootah has set his sights high in the food industry. To become the Sharia-compliant equivalent of the huge Swiss multinational is a challenging task.
Data presented this week at the Global Islamic Economy Summit in Dubai will give him confidence that the market is there: Muslims spent US$1.1 trillion on food and beverages last year, forecast to reach $1.6tn by 2018. That is a bigger checkout bill than China or America, the world’s top eaters.
Al Islami already has a serious pedigree in the halal business. It was founded 25 years ago by Haj Saeed Lootah, the current managing director’s uncle who was also an architect of Dubai Islamic Bank, the first Sharia-compliant bank in the world.
The company’s products are staples of the chiller cabinets of supermarkets in the UAE, exporting to many other countries across the Middle East.
Some of the biggest names in the global food sector are involved in the halal business – Nestlé themselves, Carrefour, KFC and others are fighting for the growing business. What will give Al Islami the edge in this highly competitive business?
“We provide genuine halal food. My uncle wanted to follow the word of the Quran, and also to keep it simple. Then the Islamic consumer will be the ultimate judge,” says Mr Lootah.
He has serious criticism of the existing halal industry. At the Dubai summit, he livened up an expert panel by declaring that traditional halal food was “lousy”. He insisted that industry standards have been kept low by a failure to agree to minimum standards among producers and a lack of modern marketing techniques.
“Standards were handed down from father to son and never improved. I have an image of a butcher standing behind a counter in bloody clothes with a knife in his hand saying ‘and what would you like today?’ It is not the way a modern business should be run,” he says.
He adds that a lack of consensus over basic methods of slaughter has hampered the industry.
“We believe halal meat should be produced by hand and by knife, but that does not mean other methods of slaughter are not halal. It should not be left to the mufti to make a ruling. There should be minimum standards, and then allow for variations within that.
“We believe as long as the consumer is clearly told the origins of the product, he or she will make the right decision. Ultimately the consumer is the best mufti,” he says.
But Mr Lootah believes the Islamic food industry is about more than a debate on slaughtering methods. “We have to do this right thing by all the stakeholders, consumers, suppliers and society at large. We must treat all of them according to Sharia principles,” he says.
“For example, labelling is all important. You have to give the consumer all the information they need to make the right choice. The sell-by date on the product has expired … Is this food still halal? Of course not. Stakeholders must be treated ethically.”
The Islamic world imports most of its food, especially in the Middle East and mainly from non-Islamic countries, which supply 91 per cent of annual imports valued at $15.4 billion.
So ensuring standards are maintained in suppliers is all important. Al Islami has Sharia-compliant operations in Brazil and Australia, its two biggest suppliers, as well as at its main production facility in Dubai. “There are sometimes supply issues, but it’s usually because people don’t understand the principles of halal, and can be resolved fairly quickly. We keep these parts of the business under tight control,” says Mr Lootah.
From the UAE, it exports to the rest of the GCC, to Pakistan and Iran, and to Islamic communities in Europe. But most of its business, some 80 per cent or so Mr Lootah estimates, is in the UAE.
One theme to emerge from the Dubai summit was the lack of connectivity between the world of Islamic finance and other aspects of the halal economy, especially food. Islamic banks were failing in their task of facilitating growth in halal industries.
“There has been a problem, but I think it is being solved. The banks are backing us not because they love me or they love halal, but because they see it’s a commercial matter,” says Mr Lootah.
To achieve his ambition, he admits, he has some way to go. Annual turnover is about Dh700 million, a long way off the multibillion revenues of his would-be peers, though still achieving what Mr Lootah calls “a good handsome profit”.
But Al Islami has high targets.
“We are here, and we are ready to go global,” Mr Lootah says.
fkane@thenational.ae
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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Results
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
How to help or find other cats to adopt
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Price, base: Dh228,000 / Dh232,000 (est)
Engine: 5.7-litre Hemi V8
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 395hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 552Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.5L / 100km
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What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
