Combine Standards to Enter UK Market

The Brunei Halal brand needs to work closely with the European certification council in order to be successful in breaking into the UK markets.

Mohammed Nazir, chairman of the European Halal Development Agency, said, "I think this is a running debate at the moment, and my recommendations would be to work in collaborations with a recognised Halal organisation within the UK which already has recognition in the independent market as well as the Muslim consumer." He was a panellist at the recent International Halal Market Conference held at the International Convention Centre.

Noel Shield, interim chief executive of Ghanim International Food Corp, had talked about the UK being one of the possible major export destinations of the national brand.

Mohammed said one key element that will lead to the brand's success is to gain the trust of the Muslim UK consumers. During the conference, he said that Muslim consumers in the UK are made up of a wide range of cultural differences ranging from Asia to Africa.

There are at least 20 different Muslim languages in the UK and varied customs.

The buying habits of Muslims also vary, and Mohammed counted age distribution, disposable income, religious Muslim orientations and ethnicity of the major Muslim populations to be factors when targeting the UK as a Muslim market.

He said he thinks that the Brunei Halal Brand is "gathering momentum" and that he is "intrigued and pleased to witness the amount of effort that Brunei is putting in the brand".

"Also, by hosting this international Halal conference, it becomes a message that is going out in the Muslim world, which says that Brunei is very genuine to go out and help in the Muslim world with the Halal industry, the additional activity that Brunei has to undertake is getting the brand message to the UK market and that is the next stage that Brunei is in," he said.

Asked if it would be better for the Brunei Halal brand to be accredited again by the UK Halal accreditation authorities, Mohammed said the UK Halal standard and Brunei could talk and collaborate and come up with a "combined standard", which would enable the Brunei products to enter into the I.:1; market and enable the consumers to feel confident and comfortable about it.

"You cannot impose a product on anyone, and what you have to understand and what we need to understand is this, and by saying that one standard is the best doesn't help and by saying to take only this product, also doesn't help, so a lot of collaboration needs to take place and we need to be very sensitive about the feelings of people in the countries around the world," said Mohammed, who added that the sensitivity needs to come from the people who are leading the Halal brand.

They have to demonstrate that they are open and that they want to collaborate and want to work with people," he said.

Mohammed added that where the European standard is concerned, there are other countries who wish to collaborate with them, where products meant for entry in the UK will be certified by the European standard, and that the certification is credible.

If (the Brunei Halal brand) wants to do something similar, and we recognise the ability and standard to do a really good job in terms of auditing, and if that can be established, than for sure the Brunei Halal certified products will have access," he said.

Asked about the collaboration with a foreign Halal accreditation authority, Shield said that they are currently in talks with "people in the UK", however, the business side of the dealings makes it sensitive for him to reveal further details regarding the current status of the brand.

One of the themes of the conference at the moment is to have a unified standard, and while that would be a nice thing to have, it would be difficult to have unified standards, when there are currently different interpretations of Syariah law for instance," he said.

"Secondly, we believe that our standards are the benchmarks for standards, so do others come up to our standards or do we have to go back to theirs and it's something that we are not prepared to compromise," he said. Shield said that Ghanim's website is currently still in working progress, and that the Brunei Halal guidelines have been published and that anyone can see it.

Mohammed said that the Halal concept is not about making money and that "if a company has a commercial state and saying that this is a commercial business then they'll lose it even before it starts".

"You have to create the brand of Halal on honesty, integrity, on openness and collaboration, because these are the principles in Islam, and if you don't show that in your actions then that would have a backlash, but where the Brunei brand is at the moment is fantastic," he said.

He added that he was interested in viewing the Halal standards, but he was told that the Brunei standard was going to be "kept under wraps".

"As a consumer if I don't see the standard, how am I going to trust that? ISO standards, anyone can look at it ... not holding the standard to yourself, transparency is the critical aspect to bringing confidence to the Muslim consumer," he said.

Asked about the standard's transparency, Minister of Industry and Primary Resources Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Data Seri Setia Hj Yahya Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar said anyone can review the guidelines because "Halal is about transparency".

"We tell them the guidelines for getting the certificates, so it's all about transparency," he said. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times