HALAL FOOD - RI wants to be 'global center' for halal food

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) is set to make Indonesia a global center for halal food products, saying it can help support the country's tourism as many visitors come from the Middle East.

“Eating halal food should start in the country with the largest Muslim population,” MUI's food, medicine and cosmetics analysis body (LPPOM) head Lukmanul Hakim said Wednesday in Jakarta. (full story)

INDEX - Malaysian firms form core of SAMI Halal Food Index

Sime Darby, Nestle (M) and Genting Plantations are among the top companies on the Socially Acceptable Market Investments Halal Food Index.
 
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian listed food companies form over a third of the 274 companies in the newly-launched SAMI (Socially Acceptable Market Investments) Halal Food Index.

These 95 companies represent over two-fifths or US$53 billion (RM161 billion) of the index's total market capitalisation of US$114 billion (RM345 billion).

Sime Darby Bhd, Nestle (M) Bhd and Genting Plantations Bhd are among the top companies on the index, Thomson Reuters global head of Islamic finance and OIC countries Rushdi Siddiqui said.

"This adds feather to Malaysia's Islamic finance hub and the convergence of both (Islamic finance and halal industry)," he told a news conference on the sidelines of World Halal Forum (WHF) 2011 here yesterday.

Also present were Deloitte Malaysia global leader of Islamic finance Daud Vicary Abdullah, WHF director (Malaysia/the UK) Abdalhamid Evans and AmIslamic Funds Management chief executive officer Datin Maznah Mahbob.(full story)