Thailand expected to become 'Halal hub'
By Jirapan Boonnoon published 2 years ago
Filed Under: Halal logistics hub, Thai Halal foods
University's Halal Science Centre has joined regional company Halal Global Services to develop a Halal Super Highway to promote Halal foods and products in both domestic and global markets.
As a result, Thailand is expected to become a Halal logistics hub - or so-called Hogistics Hub - for the Southeast Asia region before the end of next year.
Winai Dahlan, director of the Halal Science Centre, said the super highway would use information technology to administer and manage product quality control from farm to table in order to create consumer confidence and reduce the cost of logistics. It would also increase productivity of Halal foods and products.
He said the super highway would be a one-stop service to facilitate the production and marketing of qualified Halal goods. A high-speed Internet database will be used to manage and control production processes to a high standard of quality, safety and accuracy. International standards and marketing demands will be applied from the sourcing of raw materials through production, storage, packaging and transportation to delivery, and every stage will be checkable.
The new super highway is expected to become a logistics centre for Halal foods and products within next year, making Thailand a hub for exports and imports of Halal products between Asean countries and the rest of the world.
"The Halal Super Highway and Hogistics Centre will have benefits for Thailand by reducing the cost of logistics. We will be able to use IT to support the supply and value chains from raw materials through production processes to consumers, and this will increase Thailand's competitive advantage," Winai said.
Halal Global Services' managing director Supachai Keowsiri said his company would develop an information infrastructure to support and promote Hal-Q accredited Halal foods and products on both domestic and global markets. Hal-Q stands for hygiene, assurance, liability and quality of Halal food. It comes with Halal-GMP (Halal - good manufacturing practices) and Halal-HACCP (Halal - hazard analysis critical control point). The standards and food safety systems guarantee hygienic Halal food for Islamic consumers.
The company also has a role as a distribution channel for Thai Halal foods and products via e-business transactions or e-commerce, inviting orders from consumers around the world via the Internet.
"I think the Hogistics hub will have an important role in new business transactions because it will welcome more than 1.8 billion Muslims from 50 countries, allowing customers to order Thai Halal foods and products with high quality standards in a worldwide e-trade environment. Consumers and suppliers will also be able to check on their purchases and track information," he said.
The global Halal market for products and services is worth more than US$330 billion (Bt11.67 trillion) per year, and includes major components in the EU and US. At present, Thailand has less than a 1 per cent share of this market, so it will benefit from becoming a Halal logistics hub for Southeast Asia, distributing Thai Halal foods and products to global markets, Supachai said.
