Indonesia eyes European halal food market

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Indonesia aims to expand its exports to Europe through the unexplored halal food market segment, which is worth 150 million euro (US$195 million) a year, a senior official at the Ministry of Trade said on Friday.

The Ministry's National Agency for Export Development (Nafed) chairwoman Diah Maulida said that although the size of the European Union market for halal food was relatively limited, at about 20 million people, it would be a successful business if Indonesia could supply suitable products.

"The halal food market is a very special opportunity for Indonesian food products, since almost all of our products are halal," she said at a seminar on the halal food market in France and European Union.

Islam requires that Muslims only eat halal food and meat of animals slaughtered according to Islamic tradition. Muslims are not allowed to eat pork and or other animals which are not slaughtered in the Islamic way. Muslims are also prohibited from drinking alcoholic beverages.

According to Nafed, the European market contributed 18.8 percent of Indonesia's total non oil and gas exports of $54.13 billion last year.

Diah said products that had a high trend in the EU market were organic products and convenience foods such as prepared and preprepared meals and food, exotic foods, fruit and coffee.

Ethnic food marketing consultant Antoine Bonnel from France's Algodoal & Cie, meanwhile, said Asia had a very high potential to take advantage of the European market.

"Asia is much more advanced in producing halal food, than anything we have in Europe," he said in the seminar.

According to Bonnel, there are currently 20 million Muslims in EU countries, not including some 18 million Muslims from Turkey, which is now applying to join the EU.

Aside from the European market, he went on to say that Indonesia should also explore the global market where 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide spend some $150 billion yearly on halal food.

However, Bonnel said, the problem would lie in certification issues since there was no single definition of halal food in Europe, or even in France alone.

Separately, Indonesian Food and Beverages Association (GAPMMI) executive director Thomas Darmawan was also optimistic about the government's move to approach the European market but saw the certification issue as a problem.

"The definition of halal food differs from one country to another. Malaysian halal food is not necessarily accepted in Indonesia and vice versa," he said, adding that the matter would be more complicated in a country which has multiple definitions of halal food.