Feature Highlights
Port of Rotterdam’s Halal Venture
By The Halal Journal
Oct 1, 2006, 10:36

As the Halal market continues to expand, the integrity of the supply-chain becomes an increasingly important issue. With major stakeholders at both the production and retail ends of the supply-chain, the logistics sub-sector is naturally emerging as one of the most rapidly developing links in the Halal value-chain.

While Malaysia’s Westports and MISC Integrated Logistics are taking a joint pole position in South East Asia’s Halal logistics arena, The Port of Rotterdam has stepped into the global picture with their plans for a European Halal gateway.

In meeting the growing demands for Halal food products, the major players are likely to demand the strictest compliance to the rules of Halal from every angle, including transportation. Full ‘farm-to-fork’ Halal compliance will require a secure supply-chain, with the ability to track where the product has been, from the point it leaves the manufacturing plant right through to the supermarket shelves half way across the globe.

“That is what we can readily deliver right now,” Captain Kees Weststrate, senior business development manager for Port of Rotterdam told The Halal Journal. “How do you know when you send a product to Europe in a container, that there are no swine-related items in there? Based on our experience, we have found solutions for this. You have to have a special kind of steering or tracking device for containers, and also for ships and air-freighters.”

WITH THE REALISATION of the prospects of a global Halal marketplace, Rotterdam is now positioning itself as the gateway into Europe for Halal products. Weststrate revealed that the Port of Rotterdam Authority is in fact in co-operation with other market parties including the Hecny Group and Vat Logistics to offer Halal supply chain solutions with full Halal certifications.

“If you look at containers and all other trades around the port, it is all coming via water in big ships and is then distributed via Rotterdam. So, we realise that this is actually our very own market. To confirm this, we made a market study, found a few interested partners and we have even found investors who are willing to invest. To me, this confirms our notion that the Halal sector is actually a very big market,” he added.

One of the aims, according to Weststrate, is to realise the establishment of a dedicated warehouse for Halal products, which can also function as a European Halal Distribution Centre. To be located within the Distriparc Maasvlakte area, one of the three concentration zones for distribution and value added logistics, the park will be situated adjacent to the large deep-sea container terminals of ECT (European Container Terminal) and APM, including a specialised terminal for intra-European shipping. The terminals and DistriPark are then connected by a dedicated bonded track.

One of the world’s most important hubs for cargo, Port of Rotterdam’s throughput in 2005 was 370 million tonnes of goods, including almost 10 million (TEU) containers. Located on the North Sea - the busiest sea route in the world - the port and industrial area extends over 40 kilometres in length, covers over 10,000 hectares and serves its European hinterland of around 380 million consumers.

Some 35,000 sea-going vessels and 135,000 inland vessels arrive at the port every year. Rotterdam is the home port and port of call for about 500 shipping lines, running regular services to more than 1,000 ports. It is also Europe’s most important port for oil and chemicals, containers, iron ore, coal, metals as well as food products.

IN 2005, throughput of food at the Port of Rotterdam was approximately 30 million tonnes, 60 per cent of which was destined for use in the Netherlands and its European hinterland. In addition to agricultural raw materials, beverages, meat, fish, preserves, grain products, fruit, vegetables, fruit juices and edible oils such as palm oil are also handled and processed within the port area.

Based on this extensive experience with food, a very extensive sector of service providers and quality control has grown. Furthermore, the “economies of care” provided by Rotterdam is also supported by the strong environmental consciousness within the Rotterdam region. As a result, the majority of goods are transported by inland barges and pipelines to minimise environmental pressure. The further central European hinterland is served by frequent shuttle transportation.

Serving a market of over 400 million people where demand may change every 300 kilometres, Port of Rotterdam is also banking on the growing Muslim population within Europe to realise their regional Halal vision. In the Netherlands alone, the Muslim population represents an annual meat consumption of approximately 100,000 tonnes. This is also reflected in supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, institutions and caterers, where Muslims are increasingly insisting on a full range of Halal products.

“To come to this conclusion, we did a little market study and found that the Islamic population in and around us is really big and is continually growing. Up to 30 million Muslims currently live in Europe, with over a million in the Netherlands and about the same in Belgium; Germany has four and half million, England around two million, and France about five million. And it is all in our hinterland, which is the market we are serving today. That makes it fairly interesting because we are already the gateway to Europe,” explains Weststrate.

WITH AN AVERAGE food expenditure of around USD1,500 per capita annually, the European Muslim population of 30 million represents a substantial USD45 billion market. With the retail giants actively pursuing the Halal consumer, and planning to offer them a full product range, the volume of Halal products flowing into Europe is likely to increase.

With both the number of consumers and the demand for Halal products expected to grow, Port of Rotterdam’s excellent geographical location as a doorway into Europe and the improving trends of Halal consumption even amongst the non-Muslims all helped to contribute to port’s staunch commitment for a strong Halal industry.

“The port management sees the Halal products market as a high-potential segment, not just size of the market and the growing demand for Halal products. It will also attract related, value-added activities, such as Halal certification and more processing standards. Further possibilities for consolidation of flows and activities like clustering will also arise and this will give definitely give us the distinctive competitive advantage as compared to other ports that focus less on this segment,” said Weststrate.

The strong push for Halal sector by the Malaysian government is also one of the reasons why Port of Rotterdam is confident of setting up the vision. “We have met the Chairman of Port of Rotterdam’s supervisory board and gave him a number of future points of interest. One of the seven points was the Halal development in Malaysia and the impact that it will play in a global Halal marketplace. Now what is important is the name of Malaysia being a reliable partner, and also the name of Port of Rotterdam being a reliable partner,” added Weststrate.

There seems to be little doubt that as the Halal market continues to evolve, the emergence of Halal logistics will be matched by more developments in other sectors of the supply chain. Certainly, the demand for Halal logistics will have some spin-offs of its own, such as the need for more specific standards to determine the parameters for Halal compliance within the logistics sector.

Picture courtesy of Peter Hellebrand.



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