This morning I found myself Googling something a bit out of the ordinary: “halal printing”.

This wasn’t a question for Jo’s Help Line. Rather, my curiousity was piqued by a thought-provoking Radio 4 programme: The Future is Halal, about the huge and growing market for halal products and services. When I think of halal it’s generally in the context of, frankly, kebabs – kebabs and the swathe of specialist butchers' shops not far from Francis Towers that supply suitably approved foodstuffs from suitably despatched animals.

The Radio 4 broadcast opened my eyes to the vast and growing market for halal products beyond a chicken shawarma: cosmetics, holidays, crockery, perfume... the list goes on.

According to the Beeb, the halal market is worth a whopping $2trn a year, and growing - Muslims are predicted to make up one in three of the global population by 2025. This accompanying article is worth a read.

You don’t have to be a Muslim to supply halal services or products, as evidenced by the French parfumier featured in the programme. And printers have the advantage of being used to jumping through the hoops required for various certifications.

What’s more, judging by the information gleaned in the programme halal certification is largely based around the sort of ethics already employed by many printcos – those already printing alcohol-free would, of course, have an immediate advantage.

It really could involve a few tweaks to this and that to open up a potentially huge new area of business. And the result of my Google search? There is a company that’s actually called Halal Print, based in Houston, Texas.

Curiously, it’s not entirely clear if they “do exactly what it says on the tin” or not, as there isn’t anything obvious (beyond the name) pointing to any sort of halal certification. Beyond that, I can’t find much info on European print and packaging companies who’ve ticked the halal boxes.

There does seem to be something of a gap in this enormous market. Clearly, food for thought.