Indonesia Sets Its Sights on Sharing the Global Halal Market

Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Halal-consuming majority population, sought to expand the influence of its Halal industry - including tourism and the food and beverage industry - by participating in the 2017 Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS).

This year's exhibition, held from April 5 to 8 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, expected the number of visitors to increase from 22,000 in 2016 to 25,000. This year's exhibition hosted 580 exhibitors from 33 countries, including South Africa, China, Thailand, Japan and Indonesia.

In 2016, the exhibition generated 1.14 billion ringgit (about US$257.3 million) in sales. This year, it offered four main exhibition zones: food, non-food, Halal-compliant services, and e-commerce.

'We brought a total of 13 travel groups to the MIHAS exhibition. Therefore, we expect to sell at least 1,000 travel packages during the four days of the exhibition,' Riyanto Sofyan, head of the Ministry of Tourism's Halal Tourism Development Promotion Council, told the Jakarta Post in an interview outside the venue on Wednesday.

'By participating in this exhibition, we hope to tell the entire Halal industry that Indonesia's tourism is booming. Many Muslim tourists are expected to be attracted to travel to Indonesia.'

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic country with more than 17,000 islands, is committed to stimulating significant growth in tourism, aiming to attract 20 million tourists by 2019, almost double last year's tourist number of 12 million.

In terms of overall figures, Indonesia plans to welcome 5 million Muslim tourists in 2019, up from a base of 2.5 million in 2016.

Therefore, the government is currently committed to developing 10 Muslim-friendly destinations in Indonesia: Aceh Province, West Sumatra, Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, West Java, Jakarta, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Riau Province and South Sulawesi.

Among the above regions, the government has set three priorities in its development plan: Aceh Province, West Sumatra and Lombok.

At the 2016 World Halal Tourism Awards, Aceh Province won two outstanding awards: the World's Best Halal Cultural Destination and the World's Best Airport for Muslim travelers, an award also given to Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport.

In the same event, West Sumatra won the titles of World's Best Halal Cultural Destination and Best Halal Culinary Destination.

'We also want to build a Halal beach in Lombok, especially at Senggigi Beach, where men and women will be separated,' Riyanto said.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's delegation to the 2017 MIHAS exhibition included 28 small and medium-sized enterprises, mainly from the food and beverage industry.

In 2016, Indonesian SMEs obtained potential orders worth 9 billion rupiah (US$675,371) from foreign buyers, and this year's goal is to set a new record.

'We hope this exhibition can prepare us to further sell our products worldwide,' Agni Iswarani, head of marketing at the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, told the Jakarta Post.

Agni said Indonesian products are often exported and sold to different countries under different trademarks, which makes it difficult for Indonesian-made products to gain global market recognition.

Therefore, he said that if the country can strengthen its branding strategy, there will be a great opportunity to hold an important position in the global Halal industry.

The 2016/2017 State of the Global Islamic Economy Report published by Reuters, along with DinarStandard's estimates, indicates that in 2021 the world will spend US$3 trillion on Halal food and lifestyle goods, a significant increase from US$1.9 trillion in 2015.

Meanwhile, the Halal financial market is expected to soar from US$2 trillion to US$3.5 trillion.

However, in the same report, Indonesia ranked tenth in the Global Islamic Economy Indicator with 36 points, an indicator showing the current prosperity and development status of the Halal economic system in 73 countries.

Malaysia ranked first with 121 points, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with 86 and 66 points respectively.