The global market is an arena full of opportunities and challenges that are not easy to overcome. In the midst of increasingly tight global competition, MSEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) have a crucial role in developing the economy and expanding product reach. One strategy that is currently increasingly relevant is to present halal products.
Departing from this, the Assessment Institute for Foods, Drugs, and Cosmetics Indonesian Council of Ulama (LPPOM MUI) held a webinar “MSE Strategy to Penetrate the Global Market with Halal Products” as a series of activities of the LPPOM MUI 1445 H Syawal Festival some time ago. Specifically, the theme was raised to explore and understand more deeply the importance of innovative strategies for MSEs in utilizing the global market by presenting quality halal products.
The President Director of LPPOM MUI, Ir. Muti Arintawati M.Si said that as one of the institutions that has a role in halal certification in Indonesia, LPPOM MUI realizes the importance of MSEs supporting the halal ecosystem. Halal products not only offer certainty for Muslim consumers but are also increasingly in demand by global consumers from various cultural and religious backgrounds. This provides a great opportunity for MSEs to penetrate the international market with the advantages of their halal products.
“By implementing these strategies effectively, I am sure that Indonesian MSEs have great potential to penetrate the global market with halal products. In this era of globalization, collaboration between the Government, certification institutions, industry players, and academics and practitioners are the key to creating an ecosystem that supports the development of globally competitive MSEs,” explained Muti.
On the same occasion, Managing Partner of BP Lawyers, Lita Paromita Siregar, SH., LLM., M.Kn., said that the existence of the Online Single Submission Risk Based Approach (OSS-RBA), or Risk-Based Business Licensing has an essential function for MSEs to obtain halal certificates easily.
“The halal certificate that MSMEs obtain is also valid abroad, so that the global market can be penetrated. Therefore, MSMEs need a halal certificate if their products want to be exported abroad,” explained Lita.
Meanwhile, the Director of Standards and Certification of the Indonesian Informatics Experts Association (IAII), Buana Suhurdin Putra, M. Kom., said that one of the things that can make MSMEs able to penetrate the global market is using digital marketing. This is necessary because technology is increasingly advanced, internet users are increasing, the number of digital content fans is growing, and shopping patterns are changing (after the COVID-19 pandemic).
“Digital marketing has benefits such as, prospective customers can get to know the product, search for product details and compare it with other products, decide to choose and buy the product, are satisfied with the product so they buy it again and recommend others to buy it too,” said Buana.
According to the Marketing & Networking Manager of LPPOM MUI, Cucu Rina Purwaningrum, S.TP, MP, the Government has enacted Act No. 33 of 2014 concerning Halal Product Assurance (UU JPH). This obligation applies to food and beverage products, as well as slaughtering products and services. The Government has set two halal certification pathways, self-declare and regular. Self-declare can only be submitted by micro and small business actors (MSMEs) whose products are considered not to contain critical materials. The second pathway, namely regular, is intended for complex businesses and has high critical points.
“Tips for passing the halal certification registration are to take training or technical guidance for halal certification, ensure that all critical materials have halal certificates, ensure that production, storage, and washing equipment are only for handling halal materials and products, and finally prepare complete registration documents,” said Cucu.
In addition, he also explained that Act No. 33 of 2014 concerning Halal Product Assurance (UU JPH) was issued by the Indonesian Government to require halal-certified food and beverage products in Indonesia. This means that halal certification is currently an important thing that MSMEs need to market their products in Indonesia.
Currently, LPPOM MUI continues to encourage government efforts to realize mandatory halal. Not only through education to MSMEs, LPPOM MUI, as a halal certification partner, also has a number of programs to facilitate MSMEs in carrying out halal certification and providing a platform that is easy for MSMEs to use to check products that already have halal certificates. You can check the halalness of a product through the website www.halalmui.org or the Halal MUI application, which can be downloaded from the Google Playstore. (ZUL)
