Not just halal kimchi: South Korea to set up certification laboratory in drive to expand halal secto | Writer : 관리자(fran@world-expo.co.kr) Date : 19.03.15 Hits : 964 |
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Not just halal kimchi: South Korea to set up certification laboratory in drive to expand halal sector
The Republic of Korea is the latest
Muslim-minority Asian country to make concerted efforts to cater to the halal
market both domestically and for export. President Moon Jae-in arrived in Malaysia
on Wednesday for talks, signing four memoranda of understanding, including one
for cooperation in the halal industry. To meet growing demand, a laboratory in
South Korea is expected to be ready this year to enable companies to obtain the
necessary halal status from international bodies. Korea will follow the Philippines,
which last month opened its own national halal laboratory. “The export and domestic sectors are both
important. However, we are more focused on the export sector than on the
domestic. This includes introducing Korean agro-food products to the Islamic
markets such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East,” Dr. YoungMin Choi, Senior
Researcher at the state-funded Korea Food Research Institute (KFRI), told
Salaam Gateway. Dr. Choi said the lab will help meet the
increased demand for “overcoming technical hurdles faced by Korean agro-food
export companies, such as alcohol reduction suitable for halal standards for
traditional fermented foods (such as kimchi, soy sauce).” ADVERTISEMENT The ISO 17025-compliant lab will ensure
that the results of a domestic analytical body be accepted by halal
certification bodies. Currently, Dr. Choi said, domestic food companies spend a
lot of time and money to acquire various halal certifications, and this acts as
a barrier to entering the halal food market. The Korean government, specifically the
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), is implementing
various policies to develop new markets to diversify the Republic’s export
destinations for domestic agricultural products, said the senior researcher. Globally, Dr. Choi said Korea’s halal
products include exports of instant coffee and seasoning to Europe, noodles,
rice cakes and sauces to Southeast Asia, and cosmetics, fresh fruit, infant
formula and snacks to the Middle East. Halal-certified kimchi and pears from
Korea are already stocked on supermarket shelves in Dubai, where they carry a
stamp of approval from the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology
(ESMA). Korean agricultural exports to 57
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries have been steadily growing,
from 356,600 tonnes in 2014 to 518,700 tonnes in 2018, according to Dr. Choi,
in her presentation at the International Halal Industry Forum in Dubai on
February 18, citing the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. HALAL AT EVENTS Domestically, Korea has expanded its halal
offering after a series of international events. Since 2015, it has been hosting an annual
international halal conference to provide information to and connect the
domestic halal supply chain, including manufacturers, distributors and
exporters. Also in 2015, the Universiade, an
international multi-sport event organised for university athletes by the
International University Sports Federation (FISU), held in Gwangju that year,
served halal food. This is the first time the catering at an international
event was halal. Ourhome catering, which supplied the food
for the event, obtained certification from the Korean Muslim Federation (KMF),
which is recognised by Malaysian certifier JAKIM and Singapore’s MUIS. Ourhome created a halal production line for
the cafeteria at Athlete’s Village and served nine types of curry and halal
kimchi. It created halal logistics, with dedicated storage and vehicles, and
managed complete separation of cooking facilities, with professional Muslim
cooks, and a halal menu. In February 2018, Shinsegae Food offered
halal catering at PyeongChang Winter Olympics, offering among others, roast
salmon, lentil soup and steamed nasi biryani to cater to various tastes. “They
invited a Malaysian chef to cook halal food,” Dr. Choi said. The Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO)
arranged for mobile prayer rooms during the event, and told local media of
plans to introduce more of such facilities across the country, since “the
number of Muslim tourists visiting South Korea is continuously on the rise.” ALTERNATIVES TO HALAL-CERTIFIED RESTAURANTS Korean restaurants are finding halal
certification very lucrative. Domestically, for some years, Korea Tourism
has been promoting the country to its Southeast Asian Muslim-majority
neighbours, such as Malaysia. It published the second edition of a
Muslim-friendly restaurant guidebook in January this year, aiming to reach over
a million Muslim tourists each year. In the exports sector, Korea has redoubled
its effort to align with halal certification requirements on popular food
products, including kimchi and soy sauce. KTO’s guidebook lists 250 Muslim-friendly
restaurants in the country currently, up from 238 in 2018. In 2016, it developed its own rating system
based on whether the restaurant is halal-certified, self-certified,
Muslim-friendly, or pork-free. Halal-certified restaurants carry a stamp
from the Korea Muslim Foundation. In self-certified restaurants, all foods
are halal, according to the owner. Muslim-friendly restaurants provide halal
food but alcohol is sold on the premises. Pork-free contains meat but no pork. The tourism authority has been organising a
Halal Restaurant Week annually since 2016 “to promote Muslim-friendly restaurants
not only for Muslims but also for tourists from all over the world.” Following its success at the Universiade,
Ourhome has expanded into Incheon airport, where the company not only provides
a halal curry menu, but also a selection of Korean halal food set, Bulgogi,
which Dr. Choi said is created based on interviews with Muslims. Locally, there is obviously an appetite for
cuisines other than Korean, meaning that halal restaurants serving
international cuisine find popularity. Another example is a Yemeni restaurant,
serving kebabs, rice, hummus, falafel and agdah chicken among other Middle
Eastern staples in Jeju, a tourist island off the southern coast of South
Korea. The island with its visa-free policy
attracted 500-odd Yemenis who fled the civil war at home. A local restaurateur
and musician, Ha Min-kyung, opened the restaurant when she realised that
refugees had limited halal food choices on the island and would eat mostly
vegetables. The restaurant, which serves Yemeni customers at a 50 per cent
discount, is cited as a success story by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR. CERTIFICATION Certification remains the biggest challenge
for the Korean halal supply chain, Dr. Choi said, with each Muslim country
following its own criteria. “The halal certification, which has already
been acquired for export, is no longer valid in other countries unless it is
mutually recognised by the certification bodies of other exporting countries.”
This results in higher costs for acquiring multiple certifications, she said. Language becomes another barrier, which can
be overcome by Korean certification bodies seeking mutual recognition with
other bodies. “There are no such cases except JAKIM and MUIS so far,” Dr. Choi
said. There are currently four halal certifying
bodies in Korea, of which only the Korean Muslim Federation is recognised by
Singapore and Malaysia. Link-> https://www.salaamgateway.com/en/story/not_just_halal_kimchi_south_korea_to_set_up_certification_laboratory_in_drive_to_expand_halal_sector-SALAAM14032019011842/ |
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