MLBA9: June / July 2009

 

 

 

 

The once little known Halal in­dustr y is now gearing up big time in the Philippines as lo­cal food processors are aggressively eyeing not just the 20-million Mus­lim population in the country but also the lucrative US$600-billion global market.

 

According to the National Eco­nomic and Development Authority (NEDA), the domestic Halal industry is expected to grow to PHP500 billion in 2010 from the current PHP200 bil­lion due to strong demand from the Middle East countries. As such, the sector is expected to be one of the driving forces of growth in the next two years amid the worldwide eco­nomic crunch.

 

For this reason, meat and food processors are stepping up their fa­cilities to ensure a Halal certification and grab a sizeable chunk of what was previously deemed as a serious Islamic matter and now dubbed by trade pundits as a "business thresh­old" of great things to come.

 

The centre of the country's Ha­lal trade is nestled in the Autono­mous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where the Muslim Mind­anao Halal Certifying Board Inc (MMHCBI), one of the Philippines' halal certifying body, is also located. The MMHCBI, which crafted the Philippine Halal Products Standards, is composed of five muftis (Guard­ians of House of Opinion) from the ARMM provinces and food tech­nologists, chemists, nutritionists and scientists of widely-recognized eru­dition in their fields of expertise on both the Islamic Sharia law and food science.

 

Aside from complying with the Philippine National Halal Standards, the MMHCBI requires companies to adhere to the international standards like HACCP (hazard analysis criti­cal control for products), GMP (good manufacturing practices) and ISO (International Standardization Or­ganization) for halal accreditation.