Mindanao producers eye $80-B halal food market

The numbers are staggering: $80 billion in global trade annually with a huge consumer base of over 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide seeking specialty foods permissible for them to consume – the Halal foods.

Halal, in relation to food, is a manner of slaughtering animals according to Islamic laws, or food and ingredients that are free of contamination and filth, and are not derived from Haram (prohibited) sources. Muslims all over the world are quite particular about the food they eat as a matter of religious observance.

Going by food safety standards, Halal (as an Islamic heritage) is considered a quality control system by itself, equivalent to HACCP, ISO, and GMP, which puts emphasis on critical control points involving hygienic and disease-free preparation of foods from farm to plate. Thus, it would soon be commonplace to see Halal-HACCP, Halal-GMP, Halal-ISO certified products, as in manufactured foods from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the Gulf region, USA and elsewhere.

This finding led the Bureau of Export and Trade Promotion (BETP) of the Department of Trade and Industry to conduct a series of consultations in 2000 all the way to 2001 aimed at securing support for the establishment of a Central Halal Certifying Body in the Philippines. It happened so quickly that even Muslims were caught by surprise, but nonetheless appreciative of this new development.

Halal food has turned out to be the biggest "discovery" in the specialty foods market in recent times. Global industry players like Baskin Robins, Nestle, Dole Asia Ltd, A & W, Unilever Australiasia, Ballantyne Foods, Kraft Foods, McCormick Foods, Stuhler’s, Cadbury Schweppes, Nutrilite, and McCain, among others, are now producing Halal foods and making then available in countries with considerable Muslim populations. They are tapping into the huge potential of this niche market.

At the moment, the Philippines has no Halal food industry to speak of. We have no authoritative and independent central certifying and accreditation body, no regulations and tandards in place, no approved legislation on Halal matters – and with only a handful of Halal certified products that mostly cater to local consumers.

While Halal certification may have been practiced in the country for more than 30 years now, it was mostly applied to fresh and frozen food items, with certification and Halal slaughtering (zabihah) being done by individuals or organizations of Muslim scholars. But Halal, as we know it, has evolved into a highly sophisticated practice that the term has been incorporated in the labeling provisions of Codex Alimentarius (the UN food safety reference guidelines) to ensure fair trade.

Until recently, very little was known about the prospects for Halal certified food products, such that there are no specific figures to show the volume and value of such products being traded in the domestic and foreign market. While several locally-produced foods and drinks (chicken, beef, biscuits, juices) are certified Halal, the current practice of securing Halal certification from individuals and Muslim organizations, and the mechanisms and standards applied in the process, have yet to be proven effective. Neither do we know if they are in conformity with acceptable mechanisms and standards used in countries that have established and extensive experience in Halal certification and accreditation.

With the rapid growth and increasing sophistication in the development of the food industry, science and technology are now being utilized by Halal authorities to determine whether certain food and non-food products are permissible for Muslims to consume or use. The Philippines, being largely Christian-dominated, may have yet to earn its credentials as a source of reliable and credible Halal food products.

It is in this respect that an organized and authoritative Halal certification process need to be in place.

The Call of the Mindanao Food Congress last April 3, 2002 to declare Mindanao as the Halal food production base ignited renewed efforts to develop and promote the Philippine Halal Food Industry. No less than President Gloria Arroyo enjoined the Department of Health )DOH) and the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) to submit a joint recommendation in response to the call.

By the mid-2002, consultations had been conducted with the business sectors in Cebu and Davao where the draft of the Philippine Halal Standards was presented. A lot of interesting questions and clarifications on the Halal process were generated from the participants. To add to these developments, a bill was filed by Rep. Hussin U. Amin of Sulu seeking to establish general guidelines for the use of the term Halal and instituting the comprehensive and integrated Philippine Halal Certification and Accreditation System for food and other products for export. The Office on Muslim Affairs, headed by former SPDA Administrator Zamzamin Ampatuan, is working on refinements on the draft of the Philippine Halal Standards, which would be the subject of another round of consultations.

The Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCO), as the coordinating secretariat for Mindanao’s economic development initiatives, has likewise thrown its full support to Mindanao’s bid to be the Halal production hub. It has drafted a 5-year action plan to develop a Mindanao Halal industry.

Designating Mindanao as the Halal food production base may have its strong merits. With its export-oriented agri-based industries, a continuing island-wide infrastructure development, and a 40 percent contribution to domestic food trade, Mindanao is on the way to being the food basket of the country. These, plus the fact that around 70 percent of the more than 4 million Muslim Filipinos are in the island, make Mindanao the most natural nucleus of a Halal food industry. Its abundant resources in livestock and poultry, marine and fisheries, fruits and vegetables, augur well for successful Halal development.

The right policy environment, with appropriate incentives, can stimulate internally generated investments in Halal ventures. Once the industry is established, Halal-certified foods could be incorporated in the Philippine Export Development Plan as suggested by the Muslim Business Forum to the Export Development Council (through its Mindanao representative) as it falls squarely into DTI’s category II, being a "stable source of export growth for the country." Category II refers to gifts and housewares, furniture, construction materials, food and marine products that may contribute to increasing merchandise exports by expanding current markets and penetrating new ones. These products are thought to be "more immune to adverse global trends."

The actions taken thus far by both government and the private sector indicate that a Philippine Halal-oriented food industry is indeed in the making. Responding to the challenge of making Mindanao the Halal food center will certainly give the region’s economy a boost and, ultimately, provide peace dividends that can pave the way to sustained growth.

(Jamil Hamza Olermo is a co-founder of the Muslim Business Forum (MBF) and founder of the recently organized Halal Resource Center)