BANGKOK, June 4 — The Thai government has geared up in encouraging Thai entrepreneurs to produce foods that meets international Halal standard to cater to the demands of growing Halal food market.
The Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) and National Food Institute jointly organised a study visit to the food production factory of IBF Halal Food Company in Samut Prakarn.
The factory is one of the main facilities in Thailand that produces food of high quality Halal standard.
The main purpose of this trip was to provide Thai food business owners with knowledge on how to produce Halal food products that meet global standards ahead of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) integration next year.
About 40 per cent of the ASEAN population, or 264 million people, are Muslim, and the TISI also believed that the market for Halal food could be as high as USD$80 billion and continues to expand.
Thailand is only exporting around US$1.62 billion of Halal food around the world, 80 per cent of which is produced from natural ingredients that do not require Halal food inspection and stamp.
TISI said, at present, there are 64,500 products from 2,188 Thai businesses which have requested to be certified by the Halal food standard.
Some 90 per cent of this figures are food products, and that the number of Thai entrepreneurs seeking Halal certification has a tendency to increase by about 20 per cent annually.
