80 per cent of Taiwanese halal companies Jakim approved

KUALA LUMPUR - A thousand Taiwanese companies in halal industry have obtained the Taiwanese Halal Certificate, and 80 per cent of them are recognised by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) as halal certified, Taiwan Halal Center (THC) Deputy Director Lin Chia Yi said.

This is an effort in promoting Taiwanese halal food to the global Muslim market and to assure Muslim customers that the food provided is safe as well as halal to consume, she said.

"Taiwan is not a Muslim country and we don’t have so many halal products. Therefore we encourage our Taiwanese companies to apply for the halal certificate so that the Malaysian (Muslim) customer can feel safe to consume the food,” she told the media at the Taiwan Expo 2023 in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, here today.

She said THC has been working closely with Halal Development Corporation Berhad (HDC) and have organised a Malaysian and Taiwan Halal Forum together in Taiwan, last month, featuring invited HDC experts to provide explanations about the Muslim market and related regulations, along with the application process for obtaining the halal certificate.

"We also found that Malaysia’s halal certification is well developed,” she said, adding that THC is currently collaborating with 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd (7-Eleven) to promote Taiwanese products by organising a Taiwan Halal Food Festival at around 50 7-Eleven outlets in Malaysia for the start, and 200 stores by the end of this year.

Lin said that collaborations with local importers and distributors were also one of the strategies in promoting the Taiwan halal food.

"We have been promoting several main halal Taiwanese foods, including sparkling drinks, crackers, jellos, instant noodles, canned food and spices. The ones we have at our pavilion are natural honey, fish extract, winter melon tea and chilli oil,” she said.

Meanwhile, Green Up Bee Honey Manager Yu Ting Tseng said the Du Du Jia Bee Honey product is a platinum brand that has obtained its halal certificate last year and hoped to penetrate the Muslim market, starting with Malaysia.

Halal chilli sauces company, Pao Chi Chung Enterprises General Manager John Ju, a third-generation member in the family business, shared that the company aims to explore the halal market in Malaysia as most of their products are commonly bought in bulk by Muslim-friendly Chinese restaurants.

In conjunction with Taiwan Expo, THC also organised the second edition of the Taiwan Halal Cooking Contest with four two-member-teams from the culinary programmes of two local universities, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), as participants.

Lin said the cooking contest is to present Taiwanese ingredients such as spices, chilli sauces and produce in a creative way using the skills of young chefs from local universities. The Taste Titans from UPM won the first place for the contest and brought home RM1,000, THC chef’s caps as well as Taiwanese products. - BERNAMA