Buddhist Thailand hunts for halal gold

From hotels with segregated swimming pools to jelly made from seaweed instead of pig bones, Buddhist Thailand is chasing halal gold as it welcomes Muslim visitors and touts its wares to the Islamic world. [Photo/Agencies]

From chicken and seafood to rice and canned fruit, the country has long been one of the world's great food exporters.

Now a growing numbers of food companies are switching to halal to widen their customer base.

Against a backdrop of humming machines churning out butter, Lalana Thiranusornkij, a Buddhist, explains how her family turned their three factories - under the KCG Corporation banner - halal to access markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and in the Gulf.

But going halal sometimes required some clever workarounds, such as how to avoid animal based gelatin to make jelly.

"In the past we used gelatin from pork but ... we changed our gelatin from the pork source to be from a seaweed source," she said.

Thailand's junta has set the goal of turning the country into one of the world's top five halal exporting nations by 2020.

Some outsiders might be surprised to see an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation embrace halal.