Indonesia’s vice president has recently stated that the country’s halal industry has to expand its role in the global trade of halal products, in addition to meeting the massive domestic demand for said products.
Speaking in a virtual discussion, Ma’ruf Amin said Indonesia remains one of the largest consumers of global halal products as total spending on halal food and beverage products reached close to US$214 billion, or 10 percent of the world’s halal products in 2018.
“We are the biggest consumer compared to other Muslim majority countries. We have to be able to utilize the potential of the world halal market by boosting exports, which are currently around 3.8 percent of the total market,” said Amin.
Currently, the Indonesian government intends to boost the growth of the local halal industry by easing access and cutting the cost of halal certification for SMEs.
Several sectors of the Indonesian halal industry have been able to compete in the global market, said Teten Masduki, the minister of cooperatives and SMEs.
The country’s halal tourism industry ranked fourth in the world, while the Muslim fashion industry the 3rd, and Islamic finance industry the 5th, Masduki added.
“However, for the halal food and beverage industry, Indonesia has not entered the top 10 globally according to the data from the State of the Global Islamic Economic Report 2019-2020,” he said.
Masduki also mentioned that local SMEs generally had a hard time applying for halal certification due to limited access and relatively high costs.
“Now, under the new Job Creation Law, halal certification for SMEs is free of charge,” he said.
The minister said the breakthrough was welcomed by micro and small businesses as 60 percent of SMEs are in the food and beverage sector.
Meanwhile, Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi said that under Law No. 33 of 2014, the country is obligated to ensure the availability of halal products and raising the added value for business operators in producing and selling halal goods.
Razi said the ministry, through the Halal Product Guarantee Agency, allocated a budget to facilitate 3,283 SMEs in obtaining halal certification.
“This facility helps financing SMEs in applying for halal certificates and the realisation of government policy to make halal certification free of charge for them,” he said.
