Halal Foundations

Speakers:

Will Dalton, Manager – Pathways to Export

Tomás Guerrero Blanco, Director – Halal Trade and Marketing Centre

Dr Bekim Hasani, Head of Shariah Affairs – Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria

Emma Page, In-market Specialist (Middle East and North Africa) – Agriculture Victoria

Stephen Lawrence, Founder – Brunswick Aces

Ian Thompson, In-market Specialist (Southeast Asia) – Agriculture Victoria

Huseyin Duzgun, Business Manager – Picnic Foods

00:00:00 --> 00:07:07

Will Dalton (DJPR)

Welcome everybody to the Halal Foundations webinar that is being delivered by the Pathways to Export Program. My name is Will Dalton and I manage the Pathways to Export Program.

I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today. I would like to pay my respects to Elders past, and present and emerging and I am coming to you today from Wurundjeri country.

So we have a fantastic webinar for you today, we have experts from across the globe and Im really excited about this webinar, I encourage you to take full advantage of this line up of speakers which includes international experts, local certifiers and businesses themselves who have gone through the certification process, we will be recording this webinar so it will be made available at a future date on our Ag Vic hub and website, so feel free to um if there's something you're not capturing during the session, do not fear because we will be recording it. So without further adieu, I might just provide a bit of an introduction of the pathways to export program, which as I mentioned I'm the manager of the program in my team is Jai Jackson-Jin who's on the on the screen there, Shank Somers and we also have Diana Di Corrado, who's not on the screen but, we just thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce those people to you from Agriculture Victoria from the pathways to export program.

This program was set up to build capability for exporters and assist new exporters and businesses that have an emerging category, so typically we're not sort of looking at focusing too much on the sort of existing broader large commodity groups, but really trying to assist those smaller niche businesses, having said that, we do work with a range of businesses, particularly if there's a diversification mandate from a business that's looking to pivot into a new market and so in support of that we have in-market specialists that are funded through our program. So we have. Emma Paige, who's based in the Middle East in Dubai and Emma's on the screen there and is giving a little wave. We have Ian Thompson in Kuala Lumpur who looks after the Southeast Asian Region and we also have Davis Chu who's in Beijing and Davis is on the on the webinar but hasn't been able to appear on the camera. So yeah, so we have these wonderful in market people who are there to assist you on your export journey. We have a newsletter that we put out monthly and we encourage you to sign up to that and we can share the information about how to do that a little later, we have our dedicated information hub on the Agriculture Victoria website, which is provides information to Agri food and beverage exporters, and yeah, so that's and workshops and webinars are the other important component of what we do around capability building, so this is an example of one of those, but we've also run other webinars in the past on the China market on we had an in person session with new exporters with Austrade, which was excellent. We engage with businesses at trade shows and things like that. So look, we're here to support you. We sit within Agriculture Vic, we work really closely with our partners in Global Victoria, who tend to work more with those businesses that are ready to export and that they support them on trade missions and things like that. And the team are really closely connected with Global Victoria. So yeah, but look getting back to why we're all here. I think you know this topic of halal certification is one that we feel there's a bit of a gap in the market around information, and there's probably a bit of misinformation out there as well, so we felt it was important. We listened to our stakeholders, we felt it was important to be able to provide information to our audience around this particular topic, so we've gone out, we've engaged with world leaders in this in this space and the approach with this webinar today is for you to for us to run through information provided by firstly by Tomas, who I'll introduce more formally, in a in a second, but then also to hear from a certifier Doctor Hassani and then to hear from businesses themselves. So we have a couple of businesses that are Victorian businesses that have gone through the certification process that will be talking about their experience. And then we'll wrap up with a bit of discussion and Q&A.

So all in all, we expect things to run for about 90 minutes. Really encourage you to use the chat function or to ask questions. It's a great opportunity to ask questions from people who are world leading in this space, so. I think that's probably enough from me.

At this point I'd I'd like to formally introduce our first speaker, Tomas Guerrero, from the Halal Trade and Marketing Centre. So Tomas is passionate about the Islamic economy and emerging markets. He previously worked at Instituto Halal, one of the largest halal certification bodies in the world, supporting more than 400 certified companies to start their operations in Latin America. He has been ranked in the top 50 leaders who contribute to the Islamic economy and appointed as a young fellow by the World Islamic Economic Forum. So it's my great pleasure to welcome Tomas to provide us with an overview of the halal scene and also help us understand what the key concepts are, so I'll hand over to Tomas asked to take us through, take us through his presentation.

00:07:15 --> 00:44:03

Tomás Guerrero Blanco (Halal Trade and Marketing Centre):

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much Mr Dalton for your introduction. First of all I would like to express my deep gratitude to Victorian government Trade and. Investment office as well as to Agriculture Victoria for these with all of you my name is Tomas Guerrero. I'm the director of the Halal Trade Marketing Centre here in Dubai and today I will go through a presentation in order to share with all of you information, relevant information about the key trends and opportunities in the in the Halal market. Having said that, let's start with the with the presentation I'm trying to go through, but. I'm not able to.

[Will - It's OK, we might even get Jai to flicker. One second. Jai - Would you like me to Control the slides for you, Thomas and you just let me know when you want to go to the next one.]

OK sure, let's do that. Thank you so much for your support. Yeah, please next.

No, no, that's OK. Yeah, yeah. Perfect.

OK, thank you so yes.

Next one as well.

So I said no as I was saying today we will go through a. quick presentation about the halal trends and the opportunity. So let's go with that first of all. Let's just we.

[Will - We're, we're having a little bit. Of trouble hearing you Tomas. It was just yeah, I think Emma's made a good suggestion. What we might do is turn off our cameras and and that might free up a. Bit of bandwidth.]

OK, let's do that. I just you just need it so. I was saying that the presentation of talking about the halal concept as well as about the regulation behind this fast growing business needs sure regarding the halal concept.

Let's start defining what halal means, so halal you can see here is an Arabic term meaning lawful as per Islamic law.

So for that reason the halal economy is economic sectors affected by Islamic laws such as food that must be halal finance that that must be compliance or that must be. modest, so this is a clear definition of about the halal concept, and I think it's always good to remember, always good to highlight. Before going deeply this - next. OK.

Once we have a clear idea about what halal means, it's also relevant, it's also convenient to talk a bit about the halal legal framework about the regulation behind the halal market. Why?

Because the halal market is regulated. One when we look at the halal market from the regulation point of view from the legal framework perspectives with find three regulatory bodies ok. First of all, in the Muslim majority countries we have the halal standardisation bodies. They are the ones in charge of setting up the rules. They are the ones in charge of coming with the standards, with the requirements so the other ones regulating this market in the home context. OK then. Also, in the Muslim majority countries we have the halal accreditation bodies, the halal accreditation bodies are in charge of auditing the certifiers. They are the ones in charge of auditing those certifiers abroad, looking for certifying companies for these Muslim majority countries, so they are the ones checking if the certifiers are ready or not they have or not their technical capabilities as well as the previous one. For all certifying companies against the halal standards in those Muslim majority countries. So they are the ones providing the certifiers with the accreditation OK. and finally we have the certifiers itself. OK, we have. The Halal Certification Board. They are the ones auditing those companies looking for expanding their business operations in the Muslim majority countries. They are the ones in charge of auditing the companies checking if they are ready to produce goods or provide services against the halal standards, so that's a quick introduction about the bodies behind the halal regulation. And it's important to have this in mind. Why? Because for companies it's so relevant. It's critical to know that if they want to export, if they want to be able to export their products to the 50 Muslim majority countries, to the 57 Muslim majority countries around the world, they have to comply. So, this is so important for those companies thinking about these markets. You have to get the Halal certification from a certifier that is recognised, or with the accreditations from, the halal accreditation bodies in those Muslim majority countries, so please next.

Well, when we look at the regulation for this market, we find out we see one problem. We don't have a nice, we don't have a global halal stamp. We have different rules, different standard for regulating the same market. So, there is a fragmentation from the regulation point of view. So, basically in the Muslim majority countries in the 57 ones we have as we can see here, different standards for regulating these markets. First of all, from the global point of view or the or the international point of view, we have SMIIC halal standards in principle. I'm saying in principle because it's not true in principle, they are the compulsory one for all the Muslim majority countries. OK in principle. The SMIIC standards are applicable in all the Muslim majority countries, but as we can see here, we have some Muslim majority countries, some Muslim countries with their own halal standards. We have the SMIIC ones from a global point of view. If we go deeply for the GCC countries here in the Middle East, we will be finding the GSO, the standards for the six Arab nations here in the GCC, [inaudible] for the GCC countries. I'm saying, again in principle because inside the GCC countries we also have two countries with their with  national halal standards. So we have UAE as well as Saudi Arabia with their own or national halal standard. Obviously, they are respecting SMIIC as well as GSO halal standards but they also have their own rules. So for Saudi Arabia or UAE you have different halal standards and those standards are the applicable ones for Saudi Arabia or UAE. And same, same thing we have in the Southeast Asia. We also have some countries, some Muslim majority countries such as Malaysia or Indonesia for example, with their own national halal standards. So, for Malaysia and Indonesia we all see [inaudible] for halal, so as you can imagine, this fragmentation is becoming sometimes a big problem, especially for those companies abroad for those companies in the non-Muslim majority countries. So it's so critical to know this and get the idea that I already said with all of you. If you want to do business in the 57 Muslim-majority countries because if you want to do that, as I said, you have to get the certification from a certifier with all the accreditations for all the Muslim-majority countries and getting that means that you are getting the accreditations the approvals against these standards, OK, so the certifiers they will be the ones guiding you through the halal compliance process and making you understand if you are able or not to comply with these halal standards OK. Because, as I said, we have the SMIIC ones, but today unfortunately they are not applicable in all the Muslim majority countries. They are only applicable in those Muslim majority countries where we don't have a regional or national halal standard, regulation OK, so through the certifier through those with all the accreditations we can comply with all the existing halal standards. Here in this slide you have some of them. Obviously in the GCC as I said we also have the UAE or Saudi Arabia approaches. So it's important to have keep this in mind in order to understand the halal legal framework on how to move forward if you want to do business in the Muslim majority countries, please next.

So now, based on that you have here for one of these Muslim majority countries, here you have a slide with the halal approach with the halal legal framework for the United Arab Emirates for the UAE. As you can see, we have different standardisation bodies coming with requirements for the UAE. We have EASMA, the UAE halal standardisation body. But because we are members of the GCC as well as of OIC, we are also accepting and recognising GSO and SMIIC halal standards but the applicable ones are the ones coming from EASMA, UA255 for processed food as well as UA89934 for meat and pork. OK those are the halal standards coming from EASMA in order to regulate the halal F&B space here in the UAE. Then from the accreditation point of view as you can see here in the UAE we have two Halal accreditation bodies. We have EIACI here in Dubai and we also have ENAS, Emirates National Accreditation System, in Abu Dhabi. So those are the ones in charge of recognising the certifiers. They are the ones empowering the certifiers, giving them the power to certify companies looking for expanding or exporting their products to the UAE. But, as you can see, we also have from the GCC point of view we also have GAC, we have the GCC Accreditation Centre and as I said we because we are also part of the GCC, we are also accepting the certifications coming from the certifier recognised with accreditation of GCC Accreditation Centre. But in principle again the accreditations recognised by the UAE authorities are those coming from EIACI, here in in Dubai, Emirates International Accreditation Centre or in ENAS, Emirates National Accreditation System, in Abu Dhabi. And then we have the the the, the the certifier. And honestly you are so lucky that in in Australia in in Victoria because Australia and talking about the UAE you have as you can see here 6 halal certification bodies recognised by [inaudible] or GACC. So as I said, that's so good because basically companies that in Australian general and Victoria in particular they have different options. They have different certifiers with at least the accreditation coming from the UAE [inaudible] here you have the for all of them. And finally we have for the UAE national halal brand. It's not mandatory, but if you want to use our national brand halal one, you can pay EASMA for using this brand for using this logo for your products. OK, so next please.

Now, once we have a clear idea about the halal legal framework about the complexity behind the halal regulation we will go through a new section to talk about the halal market drivers so please next.

When we look at the halal markets, we can find three factors, three drivers explaining the success of the of this fast-growing business needs. First of all, we have one driver related to the Muslim population. Basically, we have a demographic dividend, so today we have 1.8 billion Muslim people in our planet and according to the latest estimations in 2023 we will be having 2.2 billion Muslim people in our world. So, we are talking about. 25~26% of the total population. So, for that reason we always say that we have a large, fast-growing population, so this is the first driver explaining the growth of the halal market today. OK, the demographic one. Please next. OK, we saw the first driver, the first factor. As I said, we have a demographic [inaudible] but when we look at the Muslim majority countries we find basically emerging countries, so some of the Muslim majority countries are the ones leading the economic growth worldwide. We are talking about emerging countries we are talking about dynamic countries from the economic point of view. As you can see here, they have been leading the economic growth worldwide and according to the latest estimation once we overcome the COVID situation this Muslim majority countries, the OIC countries, the 57 ones this block will be again ahead of the game. They will be growing. A lot. As you can see here, so this is another reason to explain the importance to explain the success and role that we have on the halal market today. So please next.

And finally, as a result of this second factor, we have a third one, basically. The economic growth in the Muslim majority countries that grow is empowering the Muslim population. So we have Muslim middle classes. We have the merging of the Muslim middle places in the 57 majority countries so. The Muslim population is starting to have the possibility to demand and consume more consumer good, more services. So that's another reason that's another driver explained the halal market growth. So as we saw we have 3: the demographic dividend, plus the emerging of the Muslim middle places and finally the economic growth behind the Muslim majority countries. So that's another relevant topic to know in order to understand why the market is becoming so relevant and so important for companies.

Please next. Now we will go through a section in order to share with you, basic information about the halal market itself. OK, we will go through an overview for the halal market. So here as you can see, we have one slide with all the halal related sector, obviously we are here today to talk about the Halal FB niche, the halal F&B space but it's also good to share with all of you this slide with all the halal related sector. Why? Because F&B as you can see here the halal from the sector is one of the most important halal related sector. But, you can also have business opportunities in other halal-related sectors, in other niches. So today obviously here we will be not talking about halal tourism or halal cosmetics, but for example for halal tourism or for halal cosmetics it's halal F&B products are so important because if you want for example to position your [inaudible] or your country as a Muslim-friendly destination, obviously you have to come with halal certified hotels and restaurants and obviously those hotels and restaurants they need halal F&B products so the F&B sector, the Halal one, it’s important itself, but it's also critical for the development of all the halal related sectors such as for example cosmetics. Why? Because basically the halal cosmetics means natural cosmetics, and many of the products, many of the halal cosmetics, the halal cosmetic products they are using, uh, let's say, uh, raw materials, ingredients sometimes coming from the F&B space. So, for producing halal cosmetics you also need to to have certified F&B let's say a raw materials or ingredients so. It's also interesting to highlight this in order to make you understand the potential of this market going beyond the halal F&B sector itself. So as you can see here, in 2021 the halal F&B sector was let's say close to $1.2 trillion and we are talking amassive market. A huge market please next.

Here we have another slide, so similar to the previous one. But here we have the forecast. We have the estimations for all the same halal related sectors. So, as you can see all these sectors, the Halal ones will be growing a lot. Here we have the data for 2025 and as you can see here, from the F&B halal sector, the sector this sector will it will be going from the $1.2 trillion today to $1.6 trillion in 2025. But you if you can check the other Halal related sector you have a similar you know approach or you have something similar. Why? Because as you can see all of them will be growing so fast and the reason for that are the drivers that we already have, so they are the ones the three ones you know boosting, helping the market to grow please next.

Now we will go deeply to the halal F&B sector, because this is the relevant ones for this session today, so please. Here we have another view for the halal F&B market. As we said in 2021, the Muslim population spent $1.2 trillion of F&B products. Something to highlight when we compare expenditure made by the Muslim population [inaudible] by the nationals of countries such as China, USA, Japan or India for example, we find that we are talking about the second largest F&B market in the world, OK, OK. We have $1.3 trillion but but according to the estimations, only $1 trillion was, you know, fully related to the halal certification. So, $1 trillion was the amount of halal F&B products market under the halal certification please next. OK,

Now we have another slide in order to share with you information about the leaders in Halal F&B products consumption. So here you can see the countries leading the consumption, as I said, of halal F&B products. That you can see. The ranking is here and we have Indonesia in this ranking. We also have Bangladesh, Egypt or Pakistan. Obviously here we have Muslim majority countries with important Muslim population, but I would like to to use this this chart, this ranking not to highlight the amount used by the Muslim population, by the Muslim consumers in the Muslim majority countries for buying or getting halal F&B products.  I'm using this ranking to highlight that if you check the the the the the countries here, we also have some non-Muslim majority countries such as China, USA or or Germany. OK So what happened? OK we have the 57 Muslim-majority countries as we saw but we also have some non-Muslim majority countries with a significant Muslim population and for example, we talk about China we can see here that in 2020 the Muslim population there in China, they spent $11 billion on halal F&B products. So for the companies from the ones in Victoria, you have the opportunities, of course, in the Muslim majority countries in the 57 ones, but also in all the countries in the non-Muslim ones where you can find significant and growing Muslim population. No, China, is a good case, but you also have for example in Europe and UK, France, Germany. So it's not only about Muslims in the Muslim majority countries, it's also about Muslim population itself in general global, you know. Because there were ones living in non-muslim majority countries. They are also obviously demanding and consuming halal family products. So this is another important thing to to highlight, please next.

Well, we already saw. Important argument of factors to highlight the importance and the potential for companies, F&B ones in in Victoria no in the obviously halal space, no. From the halal perspective, but there is another reason to believe there is another factor to think this is an amazing business opportunities for for the products. Basically, when we look at the Muslim majority countries in the North Africa and Middle East, in the MENA region, we find net importers. OK, we find net importers in terms of F&B products. So basically, not all but many of the OIC countries, many of them Muslim majority countries. They are net importer. They are importing almost everything OK, especially in as I said in the North African Muslim countries as well as here in the middle east. This example in the GCC countries we are we are importing. As I said, almost everything we are importing around the. 75/80% Between the 75 and 90% of the food that we are consuming, so why not to think about getting the other certification of our certifier recognised by the halal accreditation bodies here in the GCC countries as well as in all the Muslim majority countries? After that, be able to  export our F & B product to this Muslim majority countries and become a relevant supplier for from the abroad because. We have to go to the market to bring suit no and food and some products are critical. Somethings are  basic so we have to find. Suppliers we have to. Immersive fight our suppliers and obviously Australia is always there as a relevant provider of F&B products, but I'm sure you can offer you can export more so. There is, as you can see here is, another reason to believe, to think about market as a. Very important, the opportunity is a very good your opportunity for your products. Please next.

Here for example, for meat products you can see or you can find true rankings. Basically we have the on the left we have the GCC main importers. As you can see here in the GCC countries we are mobilising, we are using huge amounts of money to import meat product. Basically we are importing the 90% of the lamb and beef meats that we are consuming. But if we go to for example to see the main meat suppliers, for examples to the UAE, we can see that the halal meat is coming basically from non-Muslim majority countries, from countries such as Brazil or Australia. But we also have USA we have other non-Muslim majority countries there so I'm sure that Australia still has power to do more. For example, in this space or in the dairy one or in other F&B niche for exporting even more halal F&B products to the GCC as well as to all the Muslim majority countries where we have this situation now where we are importing almost everything, as I said. Please next.

Well, this is the end and this. This is the final of the presentation. Well, thank you so much for your time, for the opportunity, I will remain here. If you have any question, please later on on the Q&A session where we'll learn more about how the answer to all of you. Thank you so much.

Will Dalton (DJPR) - Thank you Tomas. That was a fantastic and moving on to our next. Presenter Dr Bakim Hassani, who's the head of Sharia affairs at the Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria and Doctor Hassani, will take us through the certification process, and he's a prominent Muslim scholar, author and community activist with significant experiences in Islamic science in Australia and overseas, he has a PhD in Islamic law and Islamic. Politics, and he is considered one of the few halal experts in Australia, having written over 40 articles on halal food. So over to you, Doctor Hassani and just a reminder that we've got 20 minutes so we will need to tick to the time. Thanks Doctor Hassani.

00:44:04 --> 01:06:47

Dr Bekim Hasani (Head of Shariah Affairs – Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria):

Thank you will let me first greet you all with the greeting of peace, salam alaikum. Peace be with you all and I'll try to be respectful of time and that's always the problem being the 2nd. One, the first one always takes is time and second one is under pressure, but it's very, very important for me to be here and thank you for this invitation to all of you. And I hope I will be able to explain certain things in relation to halal and halal certification. As you know, first I'll just mention a little bit about IC CV. The company that I work with. As you know, Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria is one of the largest halal certifiers in Australia and one of the oldest one and is community-based organisation. Now all the money that this company gets, it goes back to community and is established by 11 mosques. So this is very good for the companies as well can we go to the next slide? So I'll basically I will cover these points with ICCV very religious basis of halal. So size of the global halal market and all these things. All these points that you can see here, let's go to the next. Yeah, so as you can see, ICCV is the largest and the most respected halal certification. Body in Australia established in 1992 by Islamic societies, mosques is based in. Album, but we do provide halal certification. Not not just in Victoria but in Australia all around Australia. We are accredited by the Australian Department of Agriculture, accredited by the GCC. Pretty much we are accredited by all the Muslim countries such as Malaysia. Indonesia, Singapore and GCC countries next

So this is the main part. What is halal certification? It's very important to note that halal certification provides Muslim consumers not only in Australia but also globally with assurance regarding the halal integrity of food products and their suitability for Muslim consumption. So being a halal certifier and being a halal expert in Australia. It's very big responsibility because all the consumers around the world that consume halal products exported from Australia, we are responsible for those products, so we rely on the clients to provide all the relevant documents and all the consumers. Rely on us to do our job for accrediting or for certifying those clients as halal. Halal, like a certification bodies are subject, so we don't just certify clients as halal, but we also get assessed by all those countries that we get accreditation from such as Malaysia, Indonesia, GAC and also other countries. So when it comes to halal, what is halal? This is the most important part. Just like kosher, even halal. everything that we consume. Everything that we eat. Everything that we do in life basically is either halal, which is permissible or Haram that we call it impermissible. In terms of food, everything is halal in in principle, except what is mentioned in the Holy Quran or in the tradition of the Prophet. Peace and blessings be upon him that is Haram. So in terms of all the ingredients that are Plant Based. Or vegetable based. We consider them to be suitable and therefore lawful. But when it comes to ingredients or materials that are animal based, they require a halal certificate. We want to make sure that all the ingredients are animal based come from animals. That are halal and also have been slaughtered according to the halal standard. It's when it comes to things that we consider to be Haram. Anything that is from pork or pork by products or anything that is from consumable alcohol. These are the two main critical points of halal, so that's why when we go on audits, these are the two main things that we. Ask those clients so all these rules that and all these regulations in terms of halal standards are derived from the Holy Quran, the Holy book followed by Muslims and also the tradition of our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

So when it comes to size of the global halal food market, I just want to mention what the previous speaker mentioned. We are considered to be around 1.9 million billion Muslims around the world and those Muslims. They don't just live in Muslim countries but also they live in non-muslim countries as well. Even in Australia we're around 1million Muslims that eat and drink so consume only halal products. We have Muslims that live in China. Believe it or not, they're around 200,million Muslims that live in China, around 200,million Muslims that live in India. They also consume halal products, but what is also interesting, even the non-Muslims that live in Muslim countries? That they also consume halal products. So we are considering around 2 billion people that consume halal products on daily basis and the previous speaker mentioned when it comes to the global halal food. Market is projected to go from 2.09 trillion in 2021 to 3.27 trillion by 2028. So we are talking about a large consumption of halal products by Muslims and it's important to note here as well. That we are very. Blessed to live in a country such as Australia, this makes our job very easy because Australia has a very high food safety standards so they go hand in hand with halal standards and also Australian economy depends on food export and just imagine. The largest Muslim country which is our neighbouring country Indonesia. We're talking about 260 million Muslims that consume halal products every single day and over 50% of their food is from. import and one of the main exporters of food in Indonesia is Australia, so we are very blessed to live in a country such as Australia, especially when it comes to the quality of food. The quality of red meat. We are one of the top exporters of red meat in the world.

So these are some of the examples that the previous speaker spoke about, so I don't want to dwell too much into this Indonesia, as you can see we are talking about 170 billion U.S. dollars. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, all these Muslim countries that are out there. And they're demanding halal products. And a lot of these countries, such as Saudi Arabia and GCC countries because of the weather and because of the environment. Where they live. Of majority of the dairy products come from overseas and Australia is one of the leading countries that export. Dairy products and red meat into these countries.

So when it comes to halal certification in food production, as you can see, it's important to engage in reputable halal certification body credited. So as I mentioned maybe earlier, we have around 25 halal certification bodies in Australia is very important. For the companies that want to be certified as halal. To go for those halal certification bodies that tick all the boxes, they have all the markets. When it comes to Malaysia, Indonesia. When it comes to Singapore and also GCC countries, it's very important because if you're willing to export  to all these markets, sometimes you have a halal certifier that is only for domestic. Market, so if you're certified for from such a halal certifier, you're not able to export your products overseas. Sometimes you've got a halal certifier that has only Malaysian market or only in the Asian market. And sometimes your product products might be limited to go only to this. These countries, so if you go to the government website when it comes to halal certification bodies, you can find all of them that are registered by the government. But you can also see all the ticks, all the markets that those halal certification bodies have. It's important to choose. The one that has all the ticks. And when you find a client overseas, let's say in Dubai or Saudi Arabia or Malaysia, Indonesia, you're able straightaway to export your products to those to those countries. ICCV is one of those halal certifiers in Australia. That takes all the boxes and you have only few of those halal certifiers in Australia that have all the markets. When it comes to Muslim countries. So this is very important. Some of the things that we we check, it's it's very, very important what we follow when it comes to halal certification. There are certain things that client has to follow. Number one, if they're interested to get the. halal certified one of the things that they have to do is fill the application form. And we have the first stage that we do is desk audit, so we require all the documentation from the client. They have to provide, specially if they deal with animal based ingredients. They have to provide all animal all the halal certification for those ingredients. When it comes to plant based ingredients or materials, if they're not able to allocate any halal certification, all they can do is provide pf document and that should be enough for us. We also ask when it comes to process flow chart traceability product. halal  our assurance system, and also sometimes when we go for the next stage which is on site audit, we ask for some lab tests, analysis, analysis report and some other documents as well.

So I'm going a bit quickly because of time, so when it comes to ingredient analysis and suitability, there are four things that we. That food is divided when it comes to meat and poultry, so this is something that require halal certification. all those companies that have, you know, ingredients from their supplies that are animal based They have to ask their supplies for halal certificate, but not just that but also the supplies halal certificate has to be acknowledged and has to be. Also accepted by the country where your product is about to go. Sometimes you have, let's say a supplier and he's got a halal certificate. But from the halal certifier that is only for domestic Market, when your product goes to Malaysia or Indonesia when they check all your halal certifications, they might say that this halal certificate for your ingredient is not accepted by us because it's not accredited from Malaysian government or jacking which is the Halal authority in Malaysia. So it's not just how our certification but also halal certification has to be from halal certifier that is accepted by the by those those countries. Fish and seafood. There are halal and suitable by default and milk and eggs also they are halal and suitable but they also have to be sourced from halal animals, plants and vegetables. As I mentioned they are halal suitable by default except those plants and vegetables that are harmful. For the consumers and those plants and vegetables are considered to be Haram or impermissible in in Islam.

So these are some of the critical points when it comes to meat and poultry. I'm not going to go too much into these details, but those companies that are interested to be halal certified. These are some of the as you can see halal critical points there. So these are the things that we focus the most.

These are the flow charts that you can follow, but I believe the organisers can share this presentations with all of you. So if you have any questions you can ask me later on, or even privately, let's go next page.

Same thing when it comes to the fish and seafood, so when it comes to fish and seafood something it's important to note fish that comes from the sea, which is wild fish. We consider them to be halal by default, but fish farming. We focus on the feed. Sometimes the feed is from porcine. And if the feed comes from a pork or any pork by products, that fish is not considered to be halal anymore.

Next, yeah milk and eggs. As you can say critical points is they have to be from the sources that we considered them to be halal, either from if it's milk has to be from cow because cow is considered to be halal animal in Islam if it's eggs. If it comes from chicken that is also considered to be halal. In Islam as well.

Plant and vegetables. We just talked about them. They are considered to be halal. A suitable by default, but we ask for PIP document just in case. If those plant based ingredients have undergone any process, sometimes they're perfectly suitable. But if they have undergone under any process and something have been added and then we have to check what has been added, those additives or they're suitable or they're halal? So that is something that we always check

So these are some of the critical points when it comes to ingredients or even additives or processing aids that we focus on. Gelatine is one of the main critical points because gelatine can come from pork. Gelatine can can come also from beef, and gelatine can come. Nowadays is synthetic and also can be sea based seaweed based. So if the gelatine is from pork we consider that to be Haram. If gelatine comes from cattle . So those cattle have to be slaughtered according to the halal standards. Glycerin is also something that we have to cheque the source of it and also fires such as stabilises and all these things are critical so we have to check the source of those emulsifiers as well. If there are animal based. They require halal certificate.

Enzymes is is pretty much same thing when it comes to alcohol. You know alcohol we consider alcohol to be prohibited and that is consumable alcohol. But any industrial ethanol, a lot of companies use industrial ethanol based on the majority of the. Standards of those Muslim countries. You know if it's less than 0.5% and then is accepted by those markets, but anything more than 0.5% and then it's questionable.

Flavours and flavourings. You know something that we also pay attention to? Sometimes flavouring can come from especially colouring and flavours can come from insects or can come from animals. So in some markets are accepted whereas in others not. Especially when it comes to. Coming, you know there is something a colour, and in some markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia is accepted, but it's not accepted in GCC countries. So we ask you know where your product is going if it's going to Malaysia and Indonesia and they use this ingredient. Is acceptable, but if they send those products to GCC countries and then we ask for them to remove this particular ingredient or flavour or colour.

Packaging and labelling. We also cheque packaging as well. How that has been handled. So how our products we ask every single client of ours to do. halal training at least once a year, just to make sure that they're dealing with how low production and they're they're handling. halal. Products as well, so labelling and packaging you know food grade certificate we require from clients when it comes to packaging and also from the labelling they have to follow FSANZ or any standards from those export countries.

Storage is also very, very important, especially for those companies that store halal and non halal products. You know we ask those companies or those clients to segregate and separate between halal and non halal products. That's why a lot of clients and companies in Australia. They decided to go halal suitable site, meaning they don't hold anything what which we consider to be Haram on site. In that case they don't require any segregation or separation, but just in case any company has something which we consider to be haram and then they have to separate and segregate and also they have to put signage that that particular area is around haram dedicated area. If it's the minority, or if it's majority Haram and just minority halal, they have to dedicate one corner just for halal products and they have to put signage that this area is halal dedicated area.

So we also ask about logistics and distribution when it comes to transportation, we ask whether it's third party transport or is it their own transportation? If it's third party, it's very important for the companies and the transportation companies. To have an agreement in place. To make them aware that they are transporting halal products. So it's less than container or less than less than a truck it's important for them not to mix with any non halal products because sometimes we'll give a bad impression if anything happens and also if you send let's say. In in one contain halal products and also mixed with something which is Haram. This might be stopped in customs and you're gonna have an issue with those destination countries. We also check hygiene which is a very very important part of of halal and halal standards. Next, please,

so cosmetics pharmaceuticals also a lot of companies now, even in Australia they are moving and they're wanna be certified as halal as well because there are a lot of demand in Malaysia in the nation and also Middle Eastern countries that they want cosmetics or pharmaceuticals that. Are considered to be halal certified so that that this is something that we cover as well next.

That's it, so thank you guys if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me later.

01:06:48 --> 01:07:19

Will Dalton (DJPR):

Fantastic thank you so much Doctor Hassani, that is a really great overview and we're now at the next stage of the Webinar where we'll actually be hearing from a couple of businesses that have been through the certification process and I'll introduce Emma Paige who's our in-market specialist in Dubai to ask a few questions of Stephen Lawrence from Brunswick Aces, so over to you

01:07:19 --> 01:08:00

Emma Page (DJPR):

Thanks Will, just to introduce Steven so Steven as Will mentioned is from Brunswick Aces. He's the co-founder and the CEO, that prior to Brunswick Aces Stephen, he has a background in engineering startups, having been the employee number one at Circa Group, which is now a publicly listed company. The company developed the Furacell and I'm sure Steven can correct my pronunciation, their process to manufacture industrial chemicals from renewable feedstocks. So Stephen how about you correct my pronunciation and give us a little bit of background and how you went from that to Brunswick bases to start us off.

01:08:00 --> 01:09:57

Stephen Lawrence:

Sure, yeah, it's they haven't made it become a household name just yet, so no one's offended you couldn't pronounce Furacell properly, but hopefully one day it will become known. Look I was studying renewable and resource management is what I qualified in and so a company like Circa Group that's trying to make some products that we all use day-to-day but out of some renewable feedstocks was a great way to kind of cut my teeth in the startup world. Having used my engineering background in that role building reactors and distillation columns in that particular instance, distilling chemicals to separate them. I've then applied that to the job that or the business that we've created now. Brunswick Aces Distilling various products, but the thing that got us going was the fact that we decided there were lots of people that wanted to enjoy some beautiful, distilled flavours without the alcohol obviously incredibly prevalent to today's conversation. We became Australia's first non-alcoholic distiller in 2017, when we set up the company with a mission to make everyone feel welcome, so I'm sure many people sat around the well, the virtual table today have been in an in a circumstance where someone's had some fancy cocktail made for them with a spirit or an alcohol or whatever it might be and the non-alcoholic list leaves a little bit to be desired. You get left out of all of the fun of picking different drinks and learning about where they were, where they were made, so creating a non-alcoholic version of the spirits that are familiar in bars and restaurants was great for us. We've got a lot of friends and family, colleagues in the Middle East who we would often find couldn't join us for a cocktail or a mixed drink or whatever it might be because it wasn't halal, so creating that option for them was how we got going.

01:09:57 --> 01:10:12

Emma Page (DJPR) :

So, and welcome and thank you for joining us today and to have this discussion. So why halal then like was halal at the start of the journey? When did halal become a topic and an and a need for Brunswick Aces?

01:10:12 --> 01:12:32

Stephen Lawrence (Founder – Brunswick Aces):

Look, certainly it was in the DNA of our business. We started out as neighbours literally number 5, 6 and 7 on our street in Brunswick. What started out, as you know, can I borrow a cup of sugar quickly became come over for a drink. Come over for dinner. We would all make and create things together and because often our friends or families or other people in the street would know that we had these great little dinner parties. Lots of people would come over, and when our friends would visit from the Middle East, it was always that awkward moment where we were enjoying something that had alcohol in them, they couldn't enjoy it with us, so we would often try and create something special for them, but it was always different, so even if it was nice, it was different and they didn't feel like they were connected to the conversation, particularly in Australia, a lot of our conversations stem from what you’ve got in your hand, the drink that you're consuming? How it tastes, how it pairs, how it blends with whatever you're eating. And so given we being an engineer and having built lots of distillation columns, I built the stills in our garage. One of our Co-founders Cam as a neuroscientist by trade and so he did all of our fermenting and all of the science side and we decided that surely we could create something that fitted the bill and because a few of our friends were not just non- drinkers but also Muslim and so it was important for them that we did it the right way even before we created the business, ensuring that we went through the process correctly so that it was halal and didn't fall into the haram category and they still couldn't drink it. There are other companies out there that make an alcoholic product and then remove the alcohol. You're always going to be left with some alcohol and so that typically is considered Haram. So for us we developed a new process where we use absolutely no ethanol whatsoever to produce our Sapiir as we call it, we also called it Sapiir because we didn't want to call it a non-alcoholic spirit because that was also considered Haram with the I mean I wish Doctor Hassan you'd been around, I could have consulted you and saved myself a lot of pain along the way, but the people that we did consult with guided us along the way. And so it was always in our DNA, and while we didn't initially get halal certification until we needed to export, we founded it based on the principles of ensuring. Everyone felt welcome and that meant in being here.

01:12:32 --> 01:12:50

Emma Page (DJPR):

Right, great so yeah from the very beginning it was always in your mind that you were going to go down this pathway, which does help, but I know that we've talked about that. You had a bit of an interesting situation. With your certification and the recognition of that, so can you talk to us about that a little bit.

01:12:50 --> 01:14:37

Stephen Lawrence (Founder – Brunswick Aces):

Yeah, I mean I was sat here listening to to you talking Doctor Hasani just thinking how wonderful my life would have been if you were in in my world five years ago because all of the things you were saying we went through, you know we learned that we learned the hard way and we couldn't just jump on a webinar and hear it all from yourself so we went down the track of getting a certification from a body that turns out, wasn't recognised in the country that we initially went into. We went through several processes of developing our equipment so that it was separate. But we didn't separate the sections of the warehouse, so again, there was all of those little hurdles. We've certainly found that doing it the hard way. We have gone into different markets and ended up discussing it with the authorities as to, who and where and how we need to certifiy them in some instance, we've instances we've actually gone through the certification process with the import authorities instead of getting a registered body and being able to tip that box off early so it was, you know, I would certainly recommend having gone down the hard Rd that people look at those websites that Doctor Hasani referenced and get it right from the off. Now I would stress I get the impression there's always going to be markets that have different requirements, I mean it's probably been more difficult for us to export to Japan than it has been to some Muslim majority countries just because of the nature of their customs. So, it's not always going to be plain sailing even if you get the right body on board. But trying to get ahead of it and ensure that you're registering with the body that has the right authority and is regarded in the in the in the right way in the country you're looking into is really important.

01:14:37 --> 01:14:50

Emma Page (DJPR):

So I'm guessing you're saying your top tip or first time advice would be speak to someone like Doctor Hasani in the first instance before proceeding on the Halal certification route.

01:14:50 --> 01:15:53

Stephen Lawrence (Founder – Brunswick Aces):

Promise he hasn't worded me up to say that beforehand. We haven't met before, but absolutely it would have would have saved us an awful lot of grief. Now we were a small business. We had, you know, often small businesses have described, as you know, plate spinning. There's always something going on and so you kind of take the easy route, but if you know what market you're going into in particular, we also suffered from the fact that we didn't have a clear goal to export at that point it was more because we had friends that were coming to us and so we wanted to cater for their needs. But we hadn't looked ahead and realised that we probably would need to export and consider that. So, I suppose the other tip is always consider the largest possible use or the most extreme use before you go into it. It's not much you know. If you get it right, it's not like you have to go through a lot more. You still have to do the same certification processes. Obviously, there are nuances between the different companies, but in reality, it's the same work that has to be done to get the certification. It's just means that you have to go through it again if you have to get multiple certifications.

01:15:54--> 01:16:03

Emma Page (DJPR):

Great, and since becoming halal certified, can you talk to us about some of like the outcomes for Brunswick Aces and what it's meant to the business?

01:16:03--> 01:17:38

Stephen Lawrence (Founder – Brunswick Aces):

Yeah, look, it's certainly the biggest principle I think for us is the fact that we have made sure our process is certified or is certifiable. We are following the right process, so even though I mean the first certification we got, we actually lapsed because we ended up not needing it. But the fact that we could confidently say we have been certified with this particular company and therefore additional certifications became a lot easier. We were confident in the knowledge that we had. You know we had the Imam come out and talk to us and we understand some of the terminology. I'm certainly not a scholar by any stretch of the imagination but you know, even just understanding what the word Haram means as opposed to Halal and being able to talk through that. Speaking to the Imam when he came out and explained to us a lot of the processes and the reasons why, was a really useful process to go through, and it greased the wheels so that it went a bit smoother and ultimately it's, I mean the very fact of having a certification is so that you're recognised, and that's probably been the biggest thing for us. When I come and see you, those in the Middle East and we can talk to the product and around it and be confident that and also the people we're talking to are confident that we're not selling them something that they can't consume. For, the reasons why everyone is looking for a last certification so it it's not necessarily the case that in our experience, we've, suddenly had a whole world of people open up. We still have to do a lot of work for it, but it makes it easier when you're confident in the product that you're providing to these other companies.

01:17:38--> 01:18:06

Emma Page (DJPR):

Fantastic, that's some great learnings there. Thanks Steven and I know that you're going to be sticking around for the Q&A later on. And I'm sure people can pop down to Brunswick Aces and possibly see you there and ask some questions as well and encourage you to go and have a visit for all of you on the webinar if you haven't been already and I'll now hand over to my colleague Ian Thompson, based in Southeast Asia in Malaysia who will have a chat to Huseyin.

01:18:06--> 01:19:57

Ian Thompson (DJPR):

Thank you Emma, and yes, I'm. I'm here coming from Kuala Lumpur and I'm going to be speaking with Huseyin today who is the export and business manager for Picnic Foods which has as part of their group is Sahara Dairy which a number of you may have heard of and the company was actually established in 2007 and it started with two people and it has now got more than 35 full time employees so. Mainly manufacturing dairy, although they do manufacturer some non-dairy yoghurts, pastries and sweets, they've been exporting to over seven countries now for more than six years and they're seeing export growth of over 30% in the last two years which is quite exceptional. Now, they're investing significant dollars in the growth of the business to enable not just dairy products, but to expand product offerings and also looking at growth in exports over the next 12 to 18 months increasing by more than 1 million dollars, which is significant forecasting so welcome Huseyin and it's great to be able to have a chat today we've been engaged a little bit through South East Asia, and I guess while we're talking, all things halal and the certification process maybe could outline your key markets just so you can explain why Picnic has and has been down the halal certification process. You're on mute, Huseyin

01:19:57--> 01:18:06

Huseyin Duzgun (Business Manager – Picnic Foods):

OK, that's better. OK yeah, picnic foods basically we were we're a company which was mainly our customer base in Australia was mainly the Muslim community that demanded halal products. So what we did was obviously, you know, we grew the company as Ian mentioned from you know two employees all the way to 38 employees. full time employees at the moment, so we already had the halal product but we didn't have the halal export accreditation which was a bit of a challenge at the start to get that accreditation and go into the market and what I found was, you know, in Malaysia is OK. Indonesia's easy to get into. Whereas what I found were the southeast sorry the UAE or the Middle Eastern market, their acceptance of halal certification is much more stricter compared to the other parts of the world. So we've successfully gone into Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia's very shortly on the on the approval list and also you'd be surprised at how much how much demand there is for halal in China as well, which hopefully we are certified in China for certain products just waiting on certification on some of the other products. The growth the process is not, wasn't as hard for us because as I said earlier, we were already halal certified company which are mainly our customer base for Muslim people, because gelatine was one of the biggest issues that we had. Even you know, fermentation of some of our products which can turn into alcoholic, which Steven would know you know can feel can be alcoholic if you don't ferment it properly and don't do it in the right way. So, we've got it perfect and that's one of our biggest export products into the into the overseas market.

01:22:14--> 01:22:32

Ian Thompson (DJPR) - I was just gonna ask, so do you see halal markets as providing a greater export outcome opportunity for your business in the in the medium term and what markets, do you see is the real growth opportunity?

01:22:33--> 01:23:17

Huseyin Duzgun

I think the South East market, South East Asian market is the one of the biggest growth markets. Now what we have, a bit of an obstacle which we can't really, which we're working on. The obstacle might be that our products shelf life isn't as long, as example, alcohol meat where it's frozen, you can get the 12 months shelf life our products shelf life, is about two months at the moment, so that's why we've diversified the business into other products as well. So, when I went to example into Singapore, I was actually quite surprised, so we bought into a business which makes Turkish Delights and Australian companies selling Turkish Delights into the Southeast market was a shock to me it actually worked really well though.

01:23:18--> 01:23:41

Ian Thompson (DJPR)

Yeah, OK thanks, now as you've been through the process, I'm just wondering for many businesses, considering that halal certification, it can seem like just too big a hurdle. How onerous did you find the process? And what were the outcomes and benefits that certification gave Picnic Foods?

01:23:42--> 01:25:15

Huseyin Duzgun

Look if you look at, the one thing, the demand for Australian products because we are known as the other panellists actually mentioned is we are known from having quality clean products made and people are happy to pay for that, premium for having quality food, food products. So as far as being but it has been challenging in to some extent and to some countries, other countries as I said earlier, is not as challenging, but you know, as we were committed, we are committed and you know, we did take us a little while until we got to, you know where we want to be to a certain point and which Ian outlined earlier now what we've done is we've invested, you know couple of million dollars into the business into the growth and everything on our on in our premises which we've got an advantage of is halal certified so there's no cost cross possible cross contamination with any other product at all. Process it can take time, it can. It can be challenging at times. Dealing with you know different countries and different regulations in Indonesia and Malaysia and so forth. But you know, example UAE would have different regulations as far as the halal certification where you need to have the labels interpretated into their language, so there has been challenges but commitment dedication I think is the key of doing what you wanna do and the financial profitability is humongous. Just got to persist.

01:25:16--> 01:25:36

Ian Thompson (DJPR)

And look, I guess that's what business is like hearing is that there is financial reward at the end because ultimately that's what businesses are looking for at the end. So I guess in in conclusion, I'd like to ask what you would say to a first time exporter considering halal certification.?

01:25:37 --> 01:27:06

Huseyin Duzgun

What I would say is do your research. Thoroughly as far as what the demands are in, you know in certain countries, I'll give you an example which I said earlier on just the Turkish Delight side, I think which was I just took some samples over to Singapore when FHA was on and I sat down at Little Farm just looking at the opportunity saying Ohh I Sat down with the CEO and then you know I sat down with him and I bought that. I said, you know, get your chef to try this Turkish Delight to like two small Turkish Delight next to the coffee, see what they think, they loved it and there and there goes you know first order was 50 kilos and we've gone to about 200 kilos, so very two weeks at the moment, so it is an opportunity there is a humongous market as all the other panellists explained as well, the opportunity the exposure, the amount of you know the financial gain side of things is actually huge as long as you wanna you really wanna do it you committed, and it does, nothing happens in a day ss Steven said earlier as well, it did take a long time until you got certain things done. It did take us a while, even though we were halal certified in Australia. It did take us quite a fair bit of time until we got to where we are at the moment and again what Ian mentioned earlier, I'm comfortable, very comfortable with the next 12, the 12 to 18 months they'll be double digit growths.

01:27:07 --> 01:27:29

Ian Thompson (DJPR)

Great look, really appreciate your thoughts on the on the process of halal certification and some of the learnings but also really happy to hear some of the expected outcomes for Victorian exporters, so look, thank you Huseyin and I look forward to seeing you shortly in Southeast Asia.

01:27:30 --> 01:27:54

Huseyin Duzgun

Excuse me & just - Just quickly got anyone needs anything, just send me an e-mail and I do get busy. I can help in any way I can direct you guys to certain people that have you know access to verification halal certification bodies as well, ICCV is fantastic, but anyone needs any help, any assistance just give me a call. I'm happy to share my phone, my e-mail and everything with. Anyone on this panel which is good?

01:27:55 --> 01:27:58

Ian Thompson (DJPR)

Thanks, Huseyin, back to you now Will.

01:27:59 --> 01:30:36

Will Dalton (DJPR):

Great thanks, thanks Huseyin and Ian and Emma and Steven for those fantastic insights. It's always great to hear from businesses that have actually gone through the. process, now I'm just mindful of the time and so looking actually to wrap things up but we did have a few questions in the chat but they've all been beautifully answered by our panellists so, there's sort of no ones there, although I'm just having one other look. Thanks for great webinar hosts and presenters, it's a bit of a long-winded question, Doctor Hassani is typing an answer, so thank you very much Doctor Hassani and there's some other ones there, so I think this is a really nice way of actually addressing some of  the questions in a in a virtual sense, that works really well, but what we'll also do is send out some information after the webinar with some sort of other basic questions that that we have thought of proposing, which might assist the attendees as well. So we'll send out some materials and also some links to our newsletter and our Hub website as well, where this webinar will be housed once it's all done and there go just on que there Shank has as dropped in the the link to the newsletter, but we'll also follow up with a generic e-mail after this, thanking everyone for their time and linking into any other resources.

So look on that note, I think I'll close things off. It's been a really great session. I just really want to say thank you to all of our presenters thank you, Tomas, thank you Doctor Hassani, Steven, Huseyin, really appreciate it. We're getting some good feedback from [participant name] in the in the chat. Thank you and look just a reminder there that we're always here to assist companies. So any, any information you need about any export related matter, feel free to send us an e-mail at the pathways to export address that's on the screen and we look forward to continuing to engage with you.

So on that note, I will bring the webinar to an end and wish you all well.

Thank you everyone, thanks everyone.

Thank you very much. Thank you all.

Thanks everyone.