Gandalf, if one abattoir pays tens of thousands of dollars each month for certification, and the other chooses not to, but gets business taken away from them by the Indonesian government, then both incur significant costs, and both pass these onto consumers. Both the halal and non-halal chicken will go up in price because of the tax. Even without a direct cost, prices will go up due to market forces, as I just finished explaining to you. Have you heard of market forces before? Supply and demand?

Furthermore, imposing extortion taxes to the point where companies choose to opt out of the market is basically robbing the industry of nearly all the profit. Reduced overall profits reduces the incentives for new players to enter the market and for existing players to expand. It undermines the economic forces that keep prices low in the long term.

Your simplistic questions and arguments merely reveal your complete ignorance of basic economics. Does Islam compel you to be so ignorant? Are you arguing from some idiotic Islamic school of economics, or just making this poo up as you go along?

FD let me know when you want to talk about the topic of this thread and I'll happilly discuss it with you.

polite_gandalf wrote on May 15^th, 2014 at 11:19pm:



I did and you totally ignored it!

1. this is not about the Indonesian attempt to extort beef exporters - this is a thread about domestic consumers
2. My OP was in direct response to baseless claims about halal certification costs being passed on to the domestic consumer at (say) supermarkets in Australia, or even the UK - look at adamant's (unsourced) quote if you need an example
3. Domestic consumers do not pay a "tax" (as in an impost) on their meat if it is halal - the claim is both illogical and baseless.

freediver wrote on May 16^th, 2014 at 5:50pm:


Have you actually checked the cost in Australia for halal certification? It’s bugger all. It costs food producers $155 for an initial site visit, and $55 for annual follow-up visits.

If Australian food companies such as meat and poultry producers export their products to the region, such large scale food production should actually lower prices in Australia.

I’m a vegetarian. Most of what I eat is Halal anyway.

Oh, yes. It’s quite easy to do.

Why don’t you give it a try, FD? That way you can have some idea what you’re talking about.

Just a tip.

freediver wrote on May 16^th, 2014 at 6:47pm:


Bingo! I think you're starting to get it!

Next step is to try and understand the abbattoirs are paying for a service - the service of having their meat halal certified, and opening themselves up to a much wider market. And as a consequence they are a) not inclined to pass the small certification cost to the consumer given that their new profit potential far outweighs the certification cost, and b) perfectly free to boycott the wannabe extortionists who foolishly want thousands of dollars for their halal certificates, when they can easily turn to the certifiers who charge just a couple of hundred.

Its called the free market - I believe we have been through this before.

And congratulations are in order - I think this was your first post in this thread without using the word taqqiya 

polite_gandalf wrote on May 16^th, 2014 at 6:44pm:


Gandalf I asked Lion if Cooon Cheese passed on the cost of halal certification, they refused to answer. I have asked Kraft if they do the same. I did not ask How Much They Have To Pay. Coon cheese refused to answer said question, you should apologise for you told porkies. If I receive an answer from Kraft I will let you know and you will have to apologise again no doubt!