Exporting Lamb to the Saudi Arabian Market - the Impact of Culture on the Production Process - Case Study Example

EXPORTING LAMB TO THE SAUDI ARABIA MARKET Introduction The government of Saudi Arabia has considered trade and business as one of the most important issues in the country. This aspect has always existed since 18th century. It was noted that during 18th century, the spread of education was highly spread by the Wahhabi movement due to spread of Islamic education came along with it. It is fundamental to highlight Islamic education played a very fundamental role in ensuring that the trade level was improved in Saudi Arabia. This is due to the fact Saudi Arabia is majorly composed of people of Muslim faith. This made trade to be highly recognised as the ultimate way of attaining development in the country. The Islamic education was majorly used in ensuring that Muslims knew and observed the Islamic laws and mostly in trade. This resulted in to memorizing of the Quran by the Islam faithful. It is worth noting that by the end of 19th century, Islamic trade was replaced to a greater extent with the modern business. This resulted in to establishment of different sectors that offered trade not specifically supported by the religion. It must be noted that non-religious trading was very important in enhancement of development due to the fact that the country had begun to increase in population and religion had begun to diversify. The introduction of modern trade resulted in to establishment of markets and shops where the trade took place. This was a very good improvement that resulted in to development of the business sector. The trade system of Saudi Arabia derives most of its basic principles from the Islam faith. This is due to the fact that Islam is the most prevalent and common faith in the kingdom (Brown, 2000). Case study The trade of any particular product is determined by demand and when demand declines the business also goes down. This is not an exception in the trade of lambs and the demand for lamb in Australia has in the decline in the recent days since the 1990s the business is largely declining. As viewed by the experts the decline in the demand and the trade in general can be attributed to the most publicized shift from the consumption of the red meat to the consumption of the white meat and more specifically the fish and chicken. Human beings worldwide have begun a campaign to healthy consumption. However, in the recent years the Australians have started to export their lambs and looking for market out of their country so as to increase the available market for their lamb in the overseas markets. In Australia approximately130000 lamb are produced and supplied annually. Around 40% of the supplied lambs are sold locally in Australia and the remaining 60% is sold overseas. Saudi Arabia is one of the major importers of the Australian lamb (Parker, 2006). With the increasing population of Saudi Arabia, protein supply increase is necessary. One of the major sources of proteins is meat and especially the lamb meat however Saudi Arabia has no capacity to produce lamb to the required level due to the large part of their land being a desert. However only 1 % of Saudi Arabia’s land is cultivated and this is not sufficient for lamb production. Shortages of water, extreme high temperatures and a rapid population increase have made it difficult for the government of Saudi Arabia to establish an organized market for the lamb. This makes Saudi Arabia to become more reliant on importing lamb and other food items. Saudi Arabia having a population of 20 million, and the majority being Muslim, consumption of lamb gets a notch high. This is because lamb consumption has a history among the Muslim which has been a part of their long time culture and the cultural heritage to the Arabs. The cultural heritage has made it a good business for the Arabs to consume lambs and to improve the business (Parker, 2006). Cultural imperatives of Saudi Arabian market The major problem that faces the business of meat and more specifically the lamb is religious background and the beliefs. Islamic culture which is the most prevalent in Saudi Arabia requires some changes that should be across three different levels in changing for the sake of religion which makes part of the culture. Some of the factors that require changing are; Changes to the slaughtering areas and specifically the areas since they have to be away from haram products; changes should be made on the instruments used and also utensils in production; A change is to be made to the slaughtering process to concur with Islamic religion. Anybody doing business with the Arabic countries has to win their trust for him to qualify for the production. This is specifically to help and be certified by the Islamic religious leader (Parker, 2006). Religion which forms the culture as stipulated earlier, is a major consideration in the consumption of lambs in Saudi Arabia and for a lamb to be consumed it has to be halal and not haram. This means the lamb must have no ingredients or substances that are extracted from an animal that is haram. It must also be made, slaughtered, processed, and stored in areas that are cleansed with the laws of Islam. The third condition is that it must be pure and never into contact with a haram product during its production and storage. This makes the production of lamb and sheep products a little bit more complicated as the production abattoirs and the utensils and instrument have to be certified by a religion leader. For every production, it has to be approved by a Halal certifier and the slaughtering has to be done facing Mecca and other conditions must be followed like skinning must only be done once the sheep is completely dead (NATO research, et al, 2008). Effects of halal requirements to the trade Animals rearing and business has gained momentum not only in Saudi Arabia but also in the whole world. Some of the animals mostly traded and reared are the sheep. Sheep are animals that are considered the most versatile animals. They are widely reared in the world by human beings. They are slightly less than cattle which are the most reared animals in the world. This is because their products range from hides, milk, leather, cashmere and mohair. Their meat and the meat products have been proven to be an essential part in the body and health of human beings and this lead to it being made part of the daily diet for people in the world today. The concept of trade, business and marketing can be given analytical explanation by taking in to account different components that constitute it. Trade and specifically marketing is a concept that has always been explained by different scholars in different ways. The use of internet has also increased in the whole world. It is noted that there is always a direct correlation between internet use and business to business marketing. Production cost of any product is specifically very important in the production, sale and distribution of the product and specifically lamb and meat to the Muslim countries. For a product to remain competitive in the market it has to have a proper cost and also proper pricing. In Saudi Arabia, the halal requirement has raised the cost of production of the lamb higher. This is because new structures and utensils have to be used and a slight mix renders the abattoir useless and therefore can only be closed down. Trying to go by the rules only increases the cost of production and hence the market loses its competitiveness (Parker, 2006). Promoting Australian chilled lamb in Saudi Arabia Sale of chilled meat from Australia to Saudi Arabia is a picking business considering the above discussed factors including lack of land to rear sheep in Saudi Arabia. Some of the major factors to consider while promoting and sale of chilled meat is respect to the religion. In order for consumption of the sheep to take place the customers have to be sure of the way of production and that it is in line with their religion. For instance the sheep has to be slaughtered by a Muslim who knows their practices and is licensed by the religious leaders. The way of slaughtering and storage also is a major factor to consider and more specifically the utensils used. The slaughtering knife has to be stainless steel among others. Cleanliness is another factor to consider due to the to the customers demand and also for the sake of prevention of disease spread. In my advertisement I would put more effort in showing the potential customers how the production process has taken place and also the measure taken to follow their religious teachings. This is the only way to show them you are being honest with them (Johnston, 1942). References Brown, M. (2000). HACCP in the meat industry. Woodhead Pub. NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Impact of Pollution on Animal Products, Faye, B., & Sinyavskiy, Y. (2008). Impact of pollution on animal products. Dordrecht: Springer. Johnston, C. I. (1942). Consumption of lamb in city households. Ottawa, Canada. Parker, P. M. (2006). 2007-2012 world outlook for frozen, processed red meat, the. ICON Group. Parker, P. M. (2006). 2007-2012 world outlook for meat markets and delicatessens, the. ICON Group. Parker, P. M. (2006). 2007-2012 world outlook for red meat, the. ICON Group. 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