December 31, 2009

 

Philippines needs to adopt Australia's halal meat standards

 

 

To get a larger pie of the highly lucrative global halal market, the Philippines has to adopt the Australian approach for halal meat and meat products.

 

This was the conclusion made by Trade and Industry Senior Undersecretary Thomas Aquino who recently went to Australia to gain a firsthand knowledge on the best practices of Australia's halal meat processing system.

 

The global halal market is estimated to have 1.6 billion consumers in 112 countries across five continents, and worth about US$80 billion to US$120 billion.

 

While not all features of the Australian system are applicable to the Philippines, areas suitable for adoption in the Philippines have been identified.

 

For instance, being a non-Muslim country, the Australian national government's intervention was focused on halal meat exports to ensure access to foreign markets. Setting up of a similar approach would be appropriate considering that halal has a religious dimension that would readily fit into the country's regulatory framework, Aquino said.

 

The training of Filipino Muslim slaughterhouse workers, especially those who will be chosen to work on halal meat for exports, will raise the bar of halal conformance in the country.

 

The potential use of an export certificate for halal meat and/or meat products possibly by introducing a modified veterinary quarantine certificate being issued by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) was recommended. This will strengthen the acceptability of halal certification issued by Philippine Islamic organisations.

 

Likewise, it was recommended that strengthening of the institutional capacity of the National Halal Accreditation Board in its function of accreditation of halal certifying bodies and training of Filipino Muslim slaughterhouse workers be undertaken.

 

The promotion in the Philippines of a number of certifiers should encourage competition among them to the benefit of meat processors and halal meat consumers.

 

The biggest concentration of Muslim consumers are in Indonesia with 212 million, Pakistan with 158 million, Bangladesh with 127 million, Egypt with 69 million, Iran with 67 million, Turkey with 66 million, and Nigeria with 64 million.

 

Non-Muslim countries with sizable Muslim population include India with 174 million, China with 38 million, Russia with 11 million, USA with seven million, the Philippines with five million, and Thailand with 4.5 million.