UK: Muslim markets support the future of Welsh Lamb sales, says expert

“Looking at the United Kingdom alone, there are 3.9m Muslims and our research suggests that 80 per cent of them will eat lamb at least once a week,” said Dr Awal Fuseini, Halal Sector Senior Manager at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). “That compares to just six per cent of once-a-week purchases from the general UK public and, while consumption of lamb is generally going down in the wider public, in the Muslim community it is going up - so you can see the door is open to increasing lamb sales.” He identified prime Muslim markets - from the European countries, mainly France, the USA, the UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: “Besides being underexploited to date by exported British produce, these marketplaces are all growing in size.” He said the Middle East market needed to be taken “really seriously. It’s a premium market. They pay more for the very best meat than other countries – in some cases up to three times as much.” Dr Fuseini felt immediate ...