As Malaysia is the only country that has reached an understanding with Tokyo to provide halal food during the Olympics and Paralympics scheduled to happen between July and September this year, the industry is set to have a busy few months, Reuters report indicated.

There's a demand for halal food during the games as there will be over 50 Muslim nations competing and there'll be Muslim athletes from other countries as well.

A huge potential to penetrate into the Japanese market

In 2018, Malaysia exported US$604mil (about RM2.5 billion) worth of halal products to Japan, 90 per cent of which were food items.

The country is looking at the Olympics as a jumping board to boost the country's halal exports and increase it by at least one fifth what it is now.

Malaysia is targeting to gain about US$300 million (about RM1.2 billion) during the games.

A Dublin-based data firm, Research and Markets. reportedly projected that by 2023, the halal industry will reach US$2.6 trillion (about RM10.8 trillion) and the country wants to be a part of it.

Right now, non-Muslim countries including the United States and China are the biggest exporters of halal products.