Halal certification is an important thing in trade, especially in terms of exports. This was conveyed by the Director of Export Product Development, Olvy Andrianita in a virtual workshop entitled The Importance of Halal Certification for Exports in Increasing the Competitiveness of Indonesian Export Products on April 23, 2021.
The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, mandated the Indonesian Ministry of Trade to focus on price stability, increasing exports, and helping Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In recent days, the Ministry of Trade is trying to develop Indonesian export products by optimizing manufacturing-based and value-added products.
One sector that is being pursued is the food and beverage industry. To encourage export SMEs, one of the things that need to be done is to increase SMEs’ competitiveness, including quality, design, brand packaging, and certification of export products. In this case, certification plays an important role.
“In this sector, we have opportunities that can be enlarged. This is in line with the increasing number of Indonesian people, especially Muslims aboard, that halal commodities increase. This is also an effort to support the supply of halal products for the pilgrims” explained Olvy.
The magnitude of this potential can be seen in the number of exports of halal products for the period January-February 2021 to countries that are included in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The amount is USD 130.46 million for processed food, cosmetics is 11.75 million, and medicine is 4.94 million. The total exports of these three sectors are higher than the total imports, so it can be said that Indonesia’s trade balance is experiencing a profit.
There are three clusters of strategies that can be targeted to increase halal exports. First, maintaining and developing major markets and products. Second, penetration of non-traditional markets. Third, focus on export SMEs with a scale-up. The three of them can be encouraged by doing export certification, one of which is by doing halal certification of products.
Apart from being accredited by SNI ISO / IEC 17065: 2012, The Assessment Institute for Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics Indonesian Council of Ulama (LPPOM MUI) has also been recognized by the Accreditation Institute in the Middle East, the Emirate Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA). This can escalate the acceptance of products that have been certified by LPPOM MUI and can be accepted in Middle Eastern and OIC countries.
Officially, the recognition of LPPOM MUI by ESMA can be seen on the official ESMA website here. (YN)
Sumber foto: kemendag.go.id
