The government is accelerating halal food production to increase access to local and foreign markets and raise exports by 10 percent.
Department of Agriculture’s Halal Project Management Office is in the second phase of the 2017-2027 Halal Food Industry Development Program which making the industry more visible locally while tapping more product destinations globally.
“As far as production is concerned, we have established several halal multiplier farms, initiated the procurement of P5 million worth of animals for distribution in areas covered by the halal multiplier farms and technical assistance to private farms who seek to be halal certified,” said HPMO program head Ammar Yassir Baraguir .
He said the office developed guidelines for farms seeking to be halal-certified.
“What we do is we provide technical assistance and other assistance for them to be recognized as halal even before they are fully certified,” Baraguir said, adding that the office may soon draft a catalog of the DA-assisted halal products.
Baraguir said they were also working to create additional Philippines National Standards for halal in coordination with the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards.
The country has six Philippine national standards for halal, including those for halal agriculture and fisheries products, halal slaughtering practices for ruminants, halal slaughtering practices for poultry, halal feeds, code on halal goat production and production of halal raw milk-code of practice.
Under the halal food production phase, stakeholders aim to increase halal crop, animal and milk as well as agri-fishery output, Baraguir said.
He said that after the second phase, they would work for phase 3 of the halal roadmap which involves exports.
Phase 1 aims to mainstream the halal food industry development program, develop policy framework conduct capability building and other training activities and quad media promotions.
The local Halal industry is determined to ride on the huge potential of halal products in the global market.
According to the Global Islamic Economy Report, the global halal industry is estimated at $2.3 trillion and may reach $3.7 trillion by 2024.