A call recently made by the Department of Trade and Industry to local food exporters to get Halal Certification so that they can increase their share of the global halal market is an extremely important one and should be heeded by those concerned.
Production for export, especially where the market is more or less assured, is one of the fastest ways of growing for business and of creating employment opportunities by the government.
As the DTI indicates, the global Muslim population in 2013 stood at 1.6 billion, or 23 percent of the world total. The global halal market stood at approximately $2.3 trillion and the food halal market at about $700 billion.
The halal market is vast, by any reckoning. Can Philippine exporters benefit from this challenge? No doubt they can. The room for the expansion of exports in the Philippines is practically infinite. Consider the following numbers:
Exports per capita, 2013; Singapore: $76,448; Indonesia: $734; Brunei: $28,190; Cambodia: $611; Malaysia: $7,662; Philippines: $543; Thailand: $3,351; Laos: $390; Vietnam: $1,479; Myanmar: $185
The numbers shown above are humiliating. We are superior only to Laos and Myanmar. As far as the possibilities of increasing Philippine exports are concerned therefore, we can say the sky is the limit.
The DTI informs us that contrary to the common notion it covers only meat and food products, halal in fact includes cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Halal is also interconnected with the services sectors such as food manufacturing and service industries, logistics and shipping, Islamic banking, finance and standards, auditing and certification, tourism, retail and health and wellness sectors.
The DTI reports the Philippines exported in 2013 a total of $480.27 million worth of products to Islamic countries. These exports included fruits, nuts, cereals, meat, fish and seafood preparations.
The potential for expansion includes sugar products, canned tuna and sardines, processed fruits and drinks and snack foods and biscuits.
The certification system in the Philippines consists of the National Commission for Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) that provides accreditation to halal certifiers through the Halal Development and Accreditation Board or Halal Board. As of February 2014, the NCMF has accredited three halal certifiers in the country. As of 2013, the DTI has listed over 200 Philippine-based firms belonging to various agri-food and agri-fishery sectors that have secured halal certification, an indication that the Philippines has the capacity to be a leading producer of halal products.
At the same time, the DTI underscores the need to further strengthen the halal accreditation and certification system. In particular, “there is the need to develop other Philippine standards parallel to international standards pertaining not only to food products but also to non-food products.”
The DTI is calling on the private sector to carry out more information campaigns, conferences and seminars to inform stakeholders of the advantages of participating in the halal industry.
We urge our exporters to respond to this challenge of the DTI to participate in the halal industry not just for their own benefit but for the benefit of the nation as a whole.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano