Philippines to export Halal products to Indonesia

The Philippines will soon enter into an agreement with Indonesia, the world’s largest muslim country, to facilitate export of Philippine Halal products to Indonesia.
Philippines’ Department of Trade & Industry Undersecretary Abdulgani M. Macatoman said, “Although we have a significant trade on food with Indonesia, we want to maximise by exploring opportunities in Halal. Indonesia is home to more than 250 million people and the first requirement of the consumers is Halal especially for food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and personal-care products.”
In a recent webinar done by Professor IR Sukoso, head of Indonesia’s Halal Product Assurance Body (BPJPH), he emphasised on the new Halal regulations in Indonesia which called for a mandatory Halal certification of products that enter, are distributed, and are traded within the territories of Indonesia.
These new changes prompted the Philippines to seek possible cooperation on Halal with Indonesia to further strengthen the economic ties of the 2 neighbouring economies.
Sukoso underscored 2 options for international cooperation: government-to-government (G2G) and business-to-government (B2G) mechanisms. B2G mechanism is the direct application of the business entity, while the G2G mechanism involves a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between 2 countries. The MoU will be an instrument for the subsequent establishment of mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) for Halal certification and accreditation between the 2 markets.
The most straightforward way to solve Halal certification issues is to have a G2G agreement.
The DTI’s Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) Director James Empeñ said that while local Halal certification bodies are yet to be accredited, there is an accredited foreign certification body that was able to comply with the national and the international requirements of its target market.
The initial draft of the MoU with Indonesia has already been tabled for approval at the Halal Export Board level which will then be circulated with the Department of Foreign Affairs for subsequent transmittal to the Indonesian side.