Meat industry representatives were busy at the World Muslim Forum in Auckland at the weekend.
Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie says he was there to show people at the forum how seriously New Zealand takes the halal - and that we have good systems and processes to ensure the meat is prepared as agreed.
He says the product that goes to a Muslim market has involved a Muslim slaughterman and the industry employs around 250 of them around the country out of a total workforce of around 24,000.
Mr Ritchie says although 250 is only a small proportion of the total number of workers, the Muslim slaughtermen play an extremely important role.
He says of the 120 countries New Zealand exports meat to, 75 of them take halal product - that's around 200,000 tonnes of halal sheep and beef.
Mr Ritchie says the country's been exporting halal meat to Muslim markets for the last 40 years.
He says it started with sheep meat but in the last 15 years there has been a very big increase in halal beef exports as a result of rising incomes in the Asian region with markets like Malaysia and Indonesia.
Mr Ritchie says while New Zealand exports directly to 75 Muslim markets - many traditional markets - like the United Kingdom and South Africa also have strong Muslim communities that take halal meat.
