Can Indonesia Become a Global Force in Halal Food Products?
I Wayan Dipta, Deputy Production and Marketing at Indonesia's Cooperatives and Small & Medium Enterprises Ministry, believes Indonesian halal food products (halal refers to those products that are produced in accordance with Islamic law) have great potential on the international market over the next 15-20 years due to the growing number of Muslims worldwide.
By 2030 the global Muslim population may number 2.2 billion and therefore demand for halal products is expected to rise accordingly. Indonesia should play a key role in the supply of halal products on the global market because Southeast Asia's largest economy contains the world's largest Muslim community. Particularly Indonesia's small and medium-sized companies should take advantage of this opportunity.
However, having the world's largest Muslim community does not automatically mean Indonesia is successful in Islam-oriented industries. For example, Islamic finance has difficulty to play a significant role in Indonesia's banking industry. The same could happen to the halal food industry (as well as non-food halal products) on a global scale because Indonesia's logistics costs are notoriously high (thus being plagued by lower competitiveness), while most local entrepreneurs may lack the spirit and quality to produce halal products for a global audience.
Meanwhile, Malaysia-based Aladdin Street - the world's first and largest e-commerce site for halal products - plans to open an office in Indonesia in October 2017 (local company Semut Tama Langgeng acts as partner of Aladdin Street in Indonesia). The arrival of Aladdin Street in Indonesia is a positive development as this e-commerce platform can facilitate the development of small and medium-sized halal enterprises in Indonesia. Aladdin Street already has offices or representative offices in 17 countries and plans to be present in a total of 30 countries by 2018.
One main problem, however, is halal certification as well as the Indonesian National Standard (in Indonesian: Standar Nasional Indonesia, or SNI) for local entrepreneurs. Most of the small and medium-sized entrepreneurs of Indonesia do not have such licenses (because it is too costly and/or too complicated for them). Indonesia's Cooperatives and Small & Medium Enterprises Ministry therefore announced it will undertake more efforts to support the small and medium-sized entrepreneurs by helping to solve the constraints of such certification.