Kikkoman's Long Journey Starting from 'Zero' for Halal Label in Indonesia

Altering the kitchen contents of a 400-year-old corporation for the sake of a single domestic market is not considered a trivial matter. For Kikkoman, the Japanese seasoning giant, their global formula has already been proven to captivate international palates, particularly in non-halal markets such as the United States.

However, upon entering Indonesia, that international blueprint for success faced a major challenge: the absolute necessity of halal sensitivity. In Indonesia, halal matters are not merely a matter of regulatory compliance on paper, but a bond of trust that determines the ‘life or death’ of a brand.

This landscape was encountered directly during the joint venture process between PT Kikkamin Akufood Indonesia and Kikkoman Global, which began in 2016. At that time, not a single Kikkoman global product possessed halal certification.

This situation presented a massive challenge for the Founder & CEO of PT Kikkoman Akufood Indonesia, Jureke. Rather than taking a shortcut by continuing to import old products to secure cash flow, management chose to completely halt all sales of non-halal products in Indonesian retail and start from scratch.

“When deciding to pursue halal certification, the key for us was trust. In making this decision, we could not simply look at profit and loss. However, we believed that if we were serious about entering the Indonesian market, we had to prove it by starting everything from zero. We continue to strive to build the trust of Indonesian consumers to choose Kikkoman,” said Jureke in a written statement received by Republika on Wednesday (10/6/2026).

This transition hit the very lifeblood of their business. The decision to empty supermarket shelves of old products caused sales graphs to plummet to a point of zero sales. This market sterilisation was carried out without compromise to ensure there was no grey area for local consumers.

“I sent letters to all supermarkets, stating how long they had to take out the products and that they were not allowed to reintroduce non-halal products into supermarkets,” said Jureke.

The next test shifted to professional kitchens in the Greater Jakarta area. At the time, the culinary community was sceptical, believing that their imported non-halal products were far superior in taste compared to the local halal-certified versions.