The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has confirmed a dramatic rise in
the number of halal food products coming in from China, but remained
skeptical over that country’s developing halal industry.
“The
number of halal products from China has increased by 50 to 100 percent
since last year,” the MUI’s Food and Drug Analysis Agency (LPPOM) chief
Lukmanul Hakim told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. (source)
He
said that some of China’s halal food exports to Indonesia, which by far
exceeded those from Europe and America, were products that came from
Ningxia, a province known for its Muslim Hui ethnicity.
Chinese
Muslims in Ningxia, who make up around 38 percent of the province’s 6.3
million residents, recently announced that they had built a halal
industry to accommodate not just the needs of fellow Chinese Muslims in
China but also Muslims in other countries.
Ningxia’s halal food
commission said that the province had more than 10,000 factories and
restaurants that had been certified halal.
The region’s halal
industry is supported by a high-tech laboratory, 15 experts and 300
staffers and is currently worth up to 50 million RMB (US$8 million).
The
commission added that the industry had been working with its foreign
counterparts since 2008, cooperating on a reciprocal basis with halal
institutions in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Malaysia, with Indonesia
soon on the agenda.
Lukmanul acknowledged the vast development of
the Chinese halal industry, but said that the LPPOM, acting as
Indonesia’s halal certification authority, did not see itself engaging
in any Chinese cooperation any time soon.
“Sure they can cooperate
with Malaysia and Saudi, but here we pay greater attention to standards
and human resource competency. It is not just a matter of certificate
issuance,” he said.
The LPPOM has so far approved the halal
certification of 46 overseas institutions from 22 countries, including
the US, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and the Netherlands. For all its
flow in halal exports to Indonesia, China, ironically, did not make the
list. (awd)
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