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CAIRO – For the first time, halal food is being advertised on France’s most-watched private television channels, attesting to the growing purchase power of Muslim shoppers in the country.  

"Even though people have to fast during the day, Muslims tend to eat more — and better — when they can eat during Ramadan, which is why it is traditionally a period of peak consumer activity," Abbas Bendali, director of Solis Conseil, an ethnic marketing consultancy in Paris, told Time magazine on Wednesday, September 2.

The Panzani-owned, Lyon-based food brand Zakia Halal is running a $430,000 mass-market promotion of halal food on most of France's largest television channels.

It features a young Muslim couple shopping at a supermarket to promote halal microwaveable meals including lasagna, ravioli, paella, beef, bourguignon and shepherd's pie.

The ad campaign began on August 17, almost a week before the beginning of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

"Zakia's timing makes good sense because people tend to be short on time during Ramadan, and will use prepared dishes along with fresh food for meals,” notes Bendali.

In Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar which started on Saturday, August 22, adult Muslims, save the sick and those travelling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.

A recent poll by the Ifop agency said 70 percent of Muslims in France, estimated at seven millions, are observing Ramadan this year.

Growing Market

The ad campaign, France’s first primetime TV advertisement for halal food, attests to the growing power of the Islamic purse.

“And when you consider the size and value of this demographic, using mass-market methods to promote halal products becomes logical, too," says Bendali.

Solis Conseil estimates that French Muslims currently purchase around $5.7 billion worth of specialized foodstuffs and related products.

It found that nearly 94 percent of Muslims of North African background, the largest group of the Muslim minority, buys exclusively halal food.

The halal market has reportedly been increasing by around 15 percent annually for nearly a decade.

For most of the last decade, the main supermarket chains have offered halal food to keep up with demand from consumers.

That has increased so much, that those supermarkets have recently launched their own halal brands to rival those of food groups — and are beginning to display them in dedicated halal sections.

Good Reception

Unexpectedly, the halal food ad campaign, the first of its kind on French TV, met positive reaction, including from the media, easing some of the growing tension between the secular state and its sizable Muslim minority.

"So much negativity has recently been attached to so-called Muslim topics that there's a certain satisfaction that ads for halal products are being greeted as normal," Bendali says.

Muslims have been in the spotlight in recent weeks following controversy over burka, a loose outfit covering the body from head to toe.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has said burka is not welcome in France and a special parliamentary commission is considering a possible ban, though the outfit is reportedly used by less than 370 women in the nation of 65 million people.

Last month, a French Muslim was denied access to a public swimming pool for wearing burkini, an outfit consisting of a headscarf, a tunic and trousers.

But the reaction to the Zakia Halal is seen as a new start and a source of relief to French Muslims.

"After so many years of being ordered to integrate into French society and culture, Muslims are interpreting the reaction to these ads as a sign that integration may finally be working in both directions,” says Bendali.

“It appears the rest of France is starting to regard things like halal food as part of the new mix."

Source: http://www.islamonline.net