SINGAPORE HALAL INDUSTRY IS FAST GROWING

SINGAPORE, April 21 (Bernama) – The fast growing halal industry in Singapore
has spurred local food manufacturers to venture into development of halal
products and services, an international halal forum was told.

Muhammad Haifan Usalli, general manager of Warees Investments Ptd Ltd, a
subsidiary owned by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis-Majlis
Ugama Islam Singapura), said the number of products certified as halal by Muis
had increased tremendously since the past five years from about 2,300 in 2000 to
more than 11,500 last year.

Speaking at the Singapore Halal Forum 2010 held in conjunction with
Food&Hotel Asia 2010 trade fair at Singapore Expo, Muhammad said Singapore’s
open economy as well as excellent physical and institutional infrastructure was
the catalyst for the growth of its halal industry.

Despite being a Muslim-minority country, he said Singapore had done well in
terms of serving the needs of its Muslim population, which makes up about 15
percent of five million people.

The number of halal-certified premises in the city-state has also increased
five-fold from about 500 outlets in 2000 to almost 2,700 last year.

Muhammad also said there was now a gradual expansion of local
halal-certified products that included health supplements, cleansing and
sanitising agents, traditional Chinese medicine and many more.

He pointed out that Singapore halal-certified companies, which were
well-reputed for high standards of safety and quality, adhered to Muis’ Halal
Quality Management System or HalMQ (pronounced as ‘Hallmark’).

HalMQ is a set of systems-based halal requirements, which are benchmarked
against internationally-known standards such as HACCP and ISO.

Muhammad said the rigorous certification requirement by MUIS provided
additional assurance to trade buyers on the reliability and ‘halalness’ of the
Singapore-made products.

-– BERNAMA




Delete & Prev | Delete & Next