The obvious answer seems to be: Muslims. Consumers choosing halal meat. Families checking labels. Travellers looking for certified restaurants. Shoppers comparing cosmetics or pharmaceuticals.

But Malaysia’s latest export data complicates that picture.

Between 2021 and 2025, Malaysia exported RM188.04 billion worth of halal products to Asian markets, according to Malaysia’s Halal Exports to ASIA, the five-year analysis published by the Halal Development Corporation on 13 October 2026 through its Halal Knowledge Centre. Annual exports rose from RM24.47 billion in 2021 to RM45.96 billion in 2025, an increase of 87.8 per cent.

Those numbers are significant. But the more interesting story begins when we ask what is actually inside them.

Food and beverages still account for the majority of the five-year value, at 55.3 per cent. Yet halal ingredients account for another 31.7 per cent. And the largest single product grouping in the ranking is not a finished food at all. It is industrial.

That changes the question.

The halal economy is not only a consumer market. Increasingly, it is an infrastructure of ingredients, standards, traceability, certification and production. Malaysia offers an unusually clear window into how that infrastructure works.

An Industry Everyone Sizes, and No One Measures the Same Way

Search for the size of the global halal market and the first difficulty appears immediately: the numbers vary enormously.

One report measures Muslim consumer expenditure. Another measures halal food alone. Another combines food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, tourism or finance. Another forecasts the value of certified products. The result is an industry that is constantly given a global number, while the perimeter behind that number stays much less visible.

There is a second difficulty, and this one is easy to verify for yourself. Search for the size of the halal market and almost every result on the first page comes from a commercial research firm selling a report. National statistics offices barely appear. Some of the most quoted figures describing one of the world’s fastest-growing economies are produced by companies whose business is selling estimates of it, rather than drawn from customs datasets capable of breaking actual trade down by product and destination.

Malaysia gives us something different.

The Halal Development Corporation publishes recurring data on halal export performance and makes market intelligence available through its Halal Knowledge Centre. Its five-year analysis isolates Malaysian halal exports to Asia rather than presenting them as a proxy for the entire global industry.

That distinction matters. These are not figures for what Muslims spent. They are figures describing goods moving through an industrial halal ecosystem. Those are not the same thing. If you want the mechanics of how that ecosystem is policed, we set them out in how halal certification really works.

The First Surprise: the Largest Product Line Is Industrial

The headline sector remains food and beverages, and that should not be obscured.

But look one level deeper. The Halal Development Corporation’s five-year product ranking places “Glycerols, Phenols and Their Derivatives” first, at RM35.61 billion, or 18.9 per cent of the total analysed exports. Carboxylic acids and anhydrides appear fifth, at RM13.32 billion. Across the broader sectoral classification, halal ingredients account for almost one third of the value.

This is where the architecture of the industry starts to appear. A halal economy built only around finished consumer products would be easy to imagine. A halal economy built around chemical inputs is something else.

Why Glycerine Matters

Glycerine is a useful example because its origin matters.

Oleochemicals can be derived from animal or from vegetable fats and oils. In Malaysia they are predominantly palm-based. The Malaysian Investment Development Authority identifies glycerine among the country’s basic oleochemicals and describes Malaysia as one of the world’s major oleochemical producers, responsible for about 20 per cent of global capacity at the time of its 2021 specialty chemicals assessment, with 21 oleochemical plants operating in the country.

Glycerine can then appear in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and countless industrial formulations. As a food additive it is also known as E422.

For a manufacturer seeking halal certification, the question is therefore not simply whether glycerine is permissible. It is a chain of questions about this particular glycerine:

• Where did it come from?
• Was its source animal or vegetable?
• Can that source be documented?
• What other materials entered the process?
• Was halal integrity maintained through manufacturing, storage and transport?

A Malaysian palm-derived ingredient whose origin and handling are documented can remove that uncertainty much earlier in the production chain.

That is the important shift. Malaysia is not only exporting products that Muslim consumers will buy. It is exporting inputs that allow other manufacturers to make products whose halal status can later be demonstrated.

The value is not only in the ingredient. It is in the information attached to it.

The Second Surprise: the Map Does Not Follow Muslim Demography

Then there is geography.

These were the leading destinations for Malaysia’s halal exports to Asia between 2021 and 2025, as published by the Halal Development Corporation.

Rank	Destination	Value (USD billion)	Muslim-majority
1	China	8.33 B	No
2	Japan	3.92 B	No
3	Indonesia	3.59 B	Yes
4	Thailand	3.08 B	No
5	India	2.96 B	No
6	Philippines	2.77 B	No
7	South Korea	2.17 B	No
8	Vietnam	1.96 B	No
9	Taiwan	1.31 B	No
10	Saudi Arabia	1.10 B	Yes

Only Indonesia and Saudi Arabia among those ten are Muslim-majority states. China received more than twice the value sent to Indonesia.

That does not mean Chinese consumers represent greater religious demand for halal products than Indonesians. Export data cannot tell us that. What it does tell us is that the geography of halal trade cannot be understood through Muslim population figures alone.

Look again at the countries near the top: China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan. This begins to resemble the geography of Asian manufacturing and supply chains as much as the geography of Muslim consumption.

We should be careful here. The destination data does not allow us to say that every shipment entering those economies is an industrial input, or that it will later be re-exported. But combined with the unusually high share of ingredients and industrial product groups, it makes one conclusion difficult to avoid: consumer demography alone is no longer enough to explain halal trade.

The factories matter too.

A Certificate Can Travel Further Than the Consumer

This changes the function of halal certification.

At the consumer level, certification answers a familiar question: can I use or consume this product?

Higher up the chain, it answers another: can I trust this input?

That difference is strategic. An ingredient may pass through several companies, countries and transformations before it becomes a finished product. Traceability therefore becomes essential.

A 2025 review of halal supply-chain integrity published in the journal Foods identified the inability to track product origins, unreliable documentation and a lack of transparency as recurring challenges across halal food supply chains.

Solving that problem only at the supermarket shelf is late. The stronger system begins upstream: raw materials, ingredients, processing, storage, transport, documentation. If the integrity of those stages can be established earlier, every manufacturer further down the chain inherits more certainty.

This may be one of Malaysia’s most important contributions to the halal economy.

What Malaysia Is Actually Building

Malaysia’s role is therefore larger than exporting halal-labelled goods. It has built institutions around the movement of halal goods.

JAKIM, the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia, administers the country’s halal certification framework and recognises foreign halal certification bodies. JAKIM explains that these recognised bodies act abroad to monitor and verify the halal status of raw materials and products destined for Malaysia, under Malaysian procedures and guidelines. By October 2024, according to a ministerial statement reported in the Malaysian press, 88 foreign halal certification bodies across 49 countries held JAKIM recognition.

That figure is worth pausing on. A national religious authority in one country has become a reference point for certifiers operating on four continents.

The Halal Development Corporation, meanwhile, develops the industrial ecosystem around halal. Its HALMAS programme now covers 14 designated halal parks spanning more than 14,000 acres, and HDC reports more than 50 multinational corporations and 300 small and medium enterprises operating within that halal park infrastructure. The sectors promoted include ingredients, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical devices and logistics alongside food.

This is not simply certification. It is industrial policy: standards, land, factories, investment, logistics, skills, recognition, market access.

A country that builds these things is not only selling into an industry. It is helping to define how the industry operates. We traced the wider shape of that system in understanding the halal industry and its standards.

Standards Are Part of the Product

This is easy to underestimate, because standards are invisible. They do not sit on a supermarket shelf. But they determine what can move through a supply chain with confidence.

Malaysia offers an especially interesting example through MS 2400.

In 2010, the standard was published under the title Halalan-Toyyiban Assurance Pipeline, with separate parts addressing transportation, warehousing and retailing. The Department of Standards Malaysia records that terminology in its official catalogue.

The standard was revised in 2019. Its title became Halal supply chain management system. The official 2019 text records the change explicitly.

Nothing needs to be added to that fact. The name changed.

What matters for our purposes is that Malaysia had already attempted, at national standards level, to turn halal supply-chain integrity into something systematic enough to be described, audited and reproduced.

That is infrastructure.

The Harder Half of the Verse

There is another word that belongs in this discussion.

Allah ﷻ says:

“O humanity! Eat from what is lawful and good on the earth…”

Surah Al-Baqarah (2), verse 168 — The Clear Quran, Dr. Mustafa Khattab

The Qur’anic expression brings halal and tayyib together. Lawful, and good.

Malaysia’s 2010 standard itself used the term Halalan-Toyyiban Assurance Pipeline. In 2019, as noted above, the standard was renamed Halal supply chain management system. There is no need to turn that change into a judgement.

But it leaves us with a useful question for the wider industry.

Halal compliance has become increasingly measurable. Ingredients can be documented. Processes can be audited. Certification can be recognised. Supply chains can be traced.

How do we measure tayyib? Quality. Dignity of labour. Environmental responsibility. Health. Fairness. The distribution of value through a supply chain.

Those questions are harder to place inside a certificate. That does not make certification insufficient. It reminds us that certification answers a specific and essential question, not every ethical question an Islamic economy may eventually need to ask. Some of those questions belong to conduct rather than to paperwork, which is where halal in business, work ethics and human dignity begins.

So Who Actually Buys Halal?

The answer depends on what we mean by buys.

Sometimes it is a Muslim consumer choosing a finished product. Sometimes it is a retailer. Sometimes it is a cosmetics company, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, a food processor, a chemical company. Sometimes it is a factory thousands of kilometres away purchasing an ingredient whose origin has already been documented.

And sometimes the buyer itself may have no religious motivation at all. It may simply need an input capable of entering a halal-certified product later in the chain.

This is why the halal economy becomes difficult to measure. Religious demand and halal industrial activity overlap, but they are not identical. A ringgit of certified ingredient exports is real halal economic activity. It does not automatically represent one ringgit of additional Muslim consumer demand, which is a different quantity altogether, and one we examined through the economic impact of Ramadan and Muslim consumer power.

Once we understand that distinction, Malaysia’s figures begin to tell a different story. Not simply that halal exports are growing, but that halal is becoming embedded in the architecture of international production.

Malaysia’s strategic role may therefore be larger than selling halal products to the world. It is helping build the ingredients, standards, certification systems and industrial infrastructure through which the rest of the world can produce them.

The figures give us a rare glimpse of that architecture. And they leave us with a better question than the size of the halal market, which we have argued elsewhere is really several distinct markets rather than one.

What exactly are we counting when we say that it is growing?

Frequently Asked Questions

Who actually buys halal products?

Both consumers and manufacturers. Alongside Muslim shoppers buying finished goods, a substantial share of halal trade consists of certified ingredients purchased by food processors, cosmetics companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and chemical firms. Those buyers may have no religious motivation themselves; they need documented inputs for products that will be certified further along the supply chain.

Which country is the biggest buyer of Malaysian halal exports?

China. Between 2021 and 2025, China received RM34.06 billion of Malaysia’s halal exports to Asia, according to the Halal Development Corporation. That is more than twice the value sent to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, which ranked third at RM14.70 billion.

Why do non-Muslim countries import halal goods?

Largely because their manufacturers need certified inputs. Many of Malaysia’s leading halal export destinations in Asia, including China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan, are major manufacturing economies. Halal certification functions for them as a documented guarantee of origin and handling within a supply chain, rather than as a consumer preference.

What are halal ingredients?

Halal ingredients are certified inputs used to make other products, rather than finished goods sold to consumers. They include oils, fats, acids, flavourings, emulsifiers and chemical derivatives. In Malaysia’s five-year export analysis, halal ingredients accounted for 31.7 per cent of the total value.

Why does glycerine need halal certification?

Because its origin is not obvious from the substance itself. Glycerine can be derived from animal fats or from vegetable oils, and the finished molecule does not announce which. A manufacturer who wants to certify a toothpaste, a tablet coating, a cream or a food additive must therefore be able to document where the glycerine came from and how it was handled.

Is halal certification only about food?

No. Malaysia’s halal export categories include cosmetics and personal care, pharmaceuticals, palm oil derivatives and industrial chemicals alongside food and beverages. The largest single product grouping in the five-year ranking, glycerols and phenols, is industrial rather than edible.

What is HALMAS?

HALMAS is the designation given by the Halal Development Corporation to Malaysia’s halal parks. According to HDC, the programme covers 14 halal parks spanning more than 14,000 acres, hosting over 50 multinational corporations and 300 small and medium enterprises across sectors including ingredients, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical devices and logistics.

What does JAKIM do?

JAKIM, the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia, administers Malaysia’s halal certification framework and recognises foreign halal certification bodies. Those recognised bodies verify the halal status of raw materials and products abroad under Malaysian procedures. By October 2024, 88 foreign bodies across 49 countries held JAKIM recognition.

What is the difference between halal and tayyib?

Halal means lawful. Tayyib means good, wholesome or pure. The Qur’an brings the two together in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:168. Modern certification systems are built to verify the first; the second covers questions such as quality, dignity of labour, environmental responsibility and fairness, which are harder to place inside a certificate.

How big is the global halal market?

There is no single agreed figure, because different reports measure different things. Some estimate total Muslim consumer expenditure, others halal food alone, others a combination of food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, tourism and finance. Most widely quoted figures come from commercial research firms rather than national customs data.

Why is the halal market so hard to measure?

Because religious demand and halal industrial activity overlap without being identical. A shipment of certified ingredients is genuine halal economic activity, but it does not represent additional Muslim consumer spending. Few countries publish halal trade broken down by product and destination, which makes comparison across markets difficult.

Sources

Institutional

1. Halal Development Corporation Berhad, Malaysia’s Halal Exports to ASIA, 13 October 2026, Halal Knowledge Centre — hkc.hdcglobal.com
2. Department of Statistics Malaysia, external trade statistics
3. Malaysian Investment Development Authority, Malaysia Specialty Chemicals, 2021 — mida.gov.my
4. Halal Development Corporation Berhad, Halal Parks — hdcglobal.com
5. Department of Standards Malaysia, MS 2400-1:2010, Halalan-Toyyiban Assurance Pipeline, Part 1
6. Department of Standards Malaysia, MS 2400-1:2019, Halal supply chain management system
7. Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM), Portal Halal Malaysia, recognised foreign halal certification bodies

Scientific

8. Ellahi, R. M., Wood, L. C., Khan, M. & Bekhit, A. E.-D. A. (2025), “Integrity Challenges in Halal Meat Supply Chain: Potential Industry 4.0 Technologies as Catalysts for Resolution”, Foods, 14(7), 1135 — mdpi.com

Scripture

9. Surah Al-Baqarah (2), verse 168. The Clear Quran, Dr. Mustafa Khattab — quran.com

Press

10. “88 foreign halal certification bodies now JAKIM accredited across 49 nations”, Malay Mail, 5 October 2024 — malaymail.com

All Qur’anic quotations in this article: The Clear Quran, Dr. Mustafa Khattab. Last updated: 16 October 2026.