Halal Product Assurance Agency (BPJPH) of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia continues to strive to encourage the development of the halal industry ecosystem. The development of the halal industry ecosystem is not only in the food and beverage product sector, which will be subject to the implementation of halal certification obligations starting October 2024 but has also begun to penetrate the consumer goods sector, such as clothing, which must be halal certified starting October 2026.
The latest effort is for BPJPH to collaborate with industry players and fashion associations to develop and promote modest halal fashion. This effort began with the launch of Indonesia Global Halal Fashion (IGHF) at the Indonesia Fashion Week event at the JCC, Jakarta, on March 28, 2024.
Head of BPJPH Muhammad Aqil Irham said that IGHF is intended to encourage the development of modest fashion as one of the strategic steps to make Indonesia the centre of world fashion. And socialize the obligation of halal product certification, which will be implemented starting October 2026.
The development of halal Muslim fashion is also certain to strengthen the halal value chain in the national halal ecosystem. Therefore, halal textiles or fabrics are needed as raw materials for fashion produced by Indonesian designers. Halal fashion products created by Indonesian designers are then targeted to penetrate the export market, which is considered the key to strengthening the existence of Indonesian fashion in the global market, such as exports to OIC countries, the Middle East, and Europe.
According to him, this potential must be seriously optimized. Indonesia is ranked third in the world according to The Global Islamic Economic Indicator (GIEI) in the SGIE Report 2023 released by Dinar Standard. Indonesia maintains its second position in the halal food industry and its third position in the halal fashion industry, lagging behind Türkiye and Malaysia.
“To become the world’s number one wise fashion, we must comprehensively strengthen the domestic halal fashion product ecosystem’s development. For that, we are innovating, such as the halal fabric industry, to build a halal value chain in the simple fashion industry from upstream to downstream,” explained Aqil.
In this case, the halal ecosystem must also involve the industrial sector widely. This also strengthens the industry through investment development and maintaining the alignment of the modest fashion industry with aspects of the green industry and its sustainability. The development of the modest fashion industry ecosystem must also be accompanied by efforts to intensify the promotion of Indonesian modest fashion products to the world market.
“We are grateful that the CEO of Dinar Standard, Mr. Rafiuddin Shikoh, attended today’s preparation for the IGHF 2024 roadshow. Thank you for your valuable time, hard work, and all your colleagues in assessing many countries in SGIE. In this opportunity, we also want your insights regarding the indicators influencing the SGIE score, especially in the modest fashion sector.” Said Aqil.
Responding to this, the CEO of Dinard Standard, Rafiuddin Shikoh, expressed his appreciation for the BPJPH initiative with the Indonesian fashion industry ecosystem and associations to take important steps together through the IGHF program to several countries.
“I also appreciate Mr. Aqil’s leadership not only in Indonesia but also in building new standards and benchmarks in the global halal lifestyle of the world market,” said Rafiuddin.
As a productive effort in the modest fashion industry sector, Rafiuddin also hopes that IGHF will bring economic benefits to the Indonesian people and contribute to the world. Bringing the values of halal and modest goodness to the world. He sees the halal industry as not only related to business and economics but also to ethical values, sustainability, and politeness, which many people worldwide have also noticed.
Furthermore, Rafiuddin said that Indonesia’s modest fashion sector has the strength to support the development of its industry. However, this is also faced with several challenges and opportunities. He assessed that Indonesia’s strengths start from a strong government commitment and are supported by entrepreneurship, a large domestic market, innovation, and fashion show activities such as fashion week events, road shows, etc.
“I think this is a special effort for Indonesia, and I don’t think any other country has done all of these things. So, I congratulate you and think this must be built,” said Rafiuddin.
In addition to these strengths, he explained that Indonesia’s modest fashion industry faces several challenges. For example, how Indonesian fashion improves its overall quality and standards. In this case, Indonesian brands are required to have the quality and standards expected by buyers and investors.
In addition, there needs to be an effort to internationalize products. The IGHF Roadshow, in this case, is a very good step. However, he reminded us that more internationalization activities should be carried out on Indonesian modest fashion products, which also target investor involvement by showing the business value of the investment market in this modest fashion sector. Moreover, the global market opportunity for Indonesian modest fashion products is still wide open.
Based on the 2023 SGIE Report, in terms of the export value of fashion products to OIC countries, Indonesia is ranked 9th, behind China, Türkiye, India, Italy, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Spain, and France. Meanwhile, as an importer of fashion products among OIC countries, Indonesia is ranked 7th, below the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Iraq.
“The increase in exports to OIC countries is the main source of economic growth for OIC countries. Exports from OIC are worth USD 122.7 billion, while imports to OIC are worth USD 37.1 billion. Indonesia is also one of the main importing countries, so it has a significant domestic market.” Rafiuddin added.
“Indonesia is ranked 3rd in all GIE indicators. That is a significant improvement compared to ten years ago when we started ranking Indonesia, which was not even in the top seven global SGI rankings. Indonesia is ranked 3rd. The fastest growing country in the ranking is now only behind Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.” Rafiuddin continued.
“If we look at the Modest Fashion sector, Indonesia is strong here, behind Türkiye and Malaysia. And in our report, we detail how we rank each sector, including modest fashion,” he explained.
At least four important factors influence the ranking of the modest fashion sector. First is the volume of modest fashion product exports to OIC countries. Second, it relates to social impact, including labour income in the fashion industry.
Third, the role of the media is how much influence media activity and international or domestic Muslim fashion promotion activities have from Indonesia. Fourth is Innovation, namely how the technology and innovation ecosystem supports strengthening the modest fashion industry in Indonesia.
Indonesian modest fashion products can target some opportunities. The vision is to enable Indonesian brands to compete and become leading fashion brands in OIC countries. How many Indonesian brands have penetrated the market in OIC countries? One of the big opportunities is that the largest number of Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia each year come from Indonesia.
This connectivity pattern between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia supports maximising a large consumer market by importing modest Indonesian fashion products to enter the Saudi Arabian market. In addition, investment and industry collaboration must also be developed. Other efforts include using global e-commerce, improving product quality or standards, and internationalizing innovation through patents and promotions. No less important is collaboration with global Muslim fashion brands. In this case, LPPOM is ready to assist every fashion business actor in carrying out the halal certification process to ensure the availability of halal clothing for the community and to ensure a sense of security and comfort for Muslim consumers in Indonesia, one of which is in the use of fashion products.
Halal fabrics in the fashion world can be certified halal through halal examination by the Halal Inspection Body (LPH) LPPOM with an audit process that meets standards independently, objectively, professionally, efficiently and easily.
In addition, LPPOM has a laboratory capable of conducting halal testing on fashion products by testing used goods in the laboratory. Through laboratory testing, a fashion product made of leather can be identified and authenticated as to the source of the material and leather products, such as bags, belts, shoes, wallets, jackets and so on. This can be done through two testing methods, namely molecular-based testing (DNA testing through PCR techniques) and microscopic testing (observation of skin pore patterns using a stereo microscope). In addition to leather testing services for fashion products, the LPPOM MUI Laboratory is the first laboratory in Indonesia to be accredited by KAN for halal and vegan testing. This laboratory has obtained ISO/IEC 17025:2017. That way, you don’t need to hesitate to test the halalness of products at the LPPOM MUI Laboratory. To find out more complete information regarding testing, you can access the website https://e-halallab.com/. (ZUL)
