The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is positioning Mindanao to become the manufacturing hub for export-quality Halal products in the country with the planned establishment of the 100-hectare Asian Halal Center in Zamboanga City.
The center, which will be built within the Zamboanga Economic Zone, is expected to enable the Philippines to capture a slice of the $2.6-trillion global Halal market.
“Mindanao is positioned to be the manufacturing base for export-quality Halal products in the country. With the Asian Halal Center, we expect to attract more locators and enhance our country’s position as the Halal industrial hub in the region,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said.
“The growing Halal market worldwide is a potential sector especially for our micro and small entrepreneurs. In the Philippines alone, we have an estimated population of 9.62 million Filipino Muslims. We need to urge them to seize this opportunity and tap the growing sector,” added Trade Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado.
Upon completion, the Asian Halal Center would be hosting the production and processing of Halal goods, enabling small and medium scale locators to cater not just to domestic requirements, but also to serve the demand within the bigger Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region. The center expects to have at least 14 locators that would be leasing facilities.
Last month, the DTI convened the Philippines’ first Halal Board, tasked to develop a comprehensive set of strategies and programs, targets and policies and Halal product certification and accreditation. Halal has a huge market, including a 2 billion Muslim population globally, of which about 9.62 million are in Philippines.
The Philippines has long been seeking to position itself to become the heart and hub of Halal trade in the Asean. The target was to capture about 30 percent of the regional trade, which was valued at some $1.38 trillion or 60 percent of the global Halal trade. Government data, however, showed that the Philippines only has a marginal share of 5 percent of this trade in the Asean.
Given the right programs and initiatives, the country could embark on the production and sale of many Halal products, including food and textile, which are marketable in the United States and Europe; cosmetics and beauty products; pharmaceutical goods; as well as provisioning for Halal services, particularly in finance (securities and bonds). —Amy R. Remo