Indonesia 'defeated' by Malaysia on halal product

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Halal products from Indonesia is expected to boost the economy sector as the demand continuously increasing. Unfortunately, The potentital has not explored by Indonesia as the producer of halal products yet. Even, the position is under Malaysia, which only has 17 million Muslims The consumers lack of information on local halal food.

“Indonesian halal products mostly use agricultural products. It makes the local content needs increase rapidly,” the Chairman of the Third Indonesian Halal Business and Food Expo (3rd IHBF Expo), Rifda Ammarina, said on Wednesday.

The development of economy cannot be separated from 205 million Indonesian Muslim needs in halal products and Islamic business. Ammarina also sees the potency from 1.7 billion Muslim in the world. Their consumption and transaction of halal products reach 580 billion USD and 125.5 trillion USD in Islamic banking service.

The Chairman of Coop Indonesia Foundation, Adi Sasono, also saw the great potential due to the integration of Southeast Asian countries and the concept of halal products. “Seeing the opportunity, our Muslim should enter new era of halalan thoyyiban (in accordance with islamic standard -Ed),” Sasono said.