Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) has successfully positioned itself as the Halal industry hub in the region during its five-day roadshow, covering Japan's three leading business and manufacturing centres, Sapporo, Osaka and Tokyo.

During the roadshow, Jafza conducted four business seminars that together attracted more than 300 leading businesses from food, pharmaceutical, electronics, transport and logistics sectors.

Ibrahim Mohamed Aljanahi, the deputy CEO of Jafza and chief commercial officer of Economic Zones World, parent company of the Free Zone, said: "The overwhelming response that Jafza's Halal-focused roadshow received reflects Japan's sharply growing interest in serving rapidly growing markets for Halal products."

"Japan seeks to reach and serve over two billion consumers of Halal food and other products in the world, including the wider Middle East region which forms the sector's largest market. This is the market Jafza as a trade and logistics hub serves. Jafza provides everything that Japanese businesses require to become a significant force in the Halal industry particularly in food, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors," he noted.

The first two business seminars, organised by Japan External Trade Organization, a government-entity that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world, with support from Tokku Food Association and Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank respectively, were focused on Dubai's Halal Mission and Jafza's position as the Halal hub for the region.

Jafza, in its presentations, gave details about the two Halal zones being developed - one in Jafza and the other in its sister company TechnoPark - to serve regional, international, as well as local markets.

Adil Al Zarooni, senior vice president (Sales), said: "Jafza seeks to collaborate and attract organisations, associations, accreditation bodies, research and development (R&D), as well as advisory firms, to support the entire Halal value chain right from R&D, product development to sourcing, production, logistics, sales and marketing."

"As a part of its Halal mission, the Free Zone will promote Halal standards globally, which are developed and evolved by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology and Dubai Accreditation Department, to attract enterprises within the Halal industry," he added.-TradeArabia News Service