Introduction

This introductory chapter explains why and how kosher and halal markets have expanded globally during the last couple of decades. It reviews sources relevant to business organisations and demonstrates how the book fills a gap in the market. Kosher and halal products can be traced back thousands of years, but within the last two decades in particular the markets for kosher and halal food and other products have grown rapidly to become global in scope. The kosher market first began to expand in the middle decades of the 20th century, and today kosher consumption is growing steadily among religious and also non-religious consumers. The market for halal products has also grown rapidly in recent decades and the value of the halal food market alone has been estimated at around $632 billion annually. The chapter also presents an outline of the book.