Kaohsiung Marine Bureau halal project to help 66 fishery products gain certification

TAIWAN - The Kaohsiung City Marine Bureau is working with the central government to help food industry professionals gain halal certification. The certification requires the processing of aquatic products must be carried out on a production line separate from that of livestock products, and that no meat and bone powder can be used in fish farming. The goal is to explore the Muslim market with over 1.8 billion in population.

The Kaohsiung City Marine Bureau has put in place for the first time a tutorial program that helps local food industry professionals gain halal certification in order to explore the market. In the past, we didn't have a good opportunity to export our product to the Muslim market. This time, we're backed by a funding of NT$ 1 million to help our local food industry professionals prepare for the market.

The Marine bureau said that, during their research of the local export to Muslim market, they found a relatively lower volume of fish products. Therefore the bureau has decided to proactively help the local food professionals to tap into the sector. So far, eight local professionals and 66 different aquatic products have earned halal certification.

Taiwan INHART Halal Certification Authority (TIHCA) chairman Ma Hsiao-chi said the companies were granted the certification after they attended a series of courses. They also had to pass two site audits, with auditors from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM, INHART) examining the facilities.

As of November this year, a total of 66 products from 8 companies have obtained Halal certification. They are eight companies including "Tian Shi Fu Aquatic Food Co., Ltd.", "Fortune Life Enterprise Co., Ltd..", "Tunahouse Trading Co., Ltd..", "An Yong Biotechnology Co., Ltd.", "Fish-Chairman Aquaculture business”, ”Union Development Frozen Foods Co., Ltd.”, “Welltech Semiconductor, INC.” and “Chen Jung Frozen Food Co.,”.

In the future, how to help companies to enter ME market and strengthen the expansion of Kaohsiung's high-quality fishery products into the international halal market will be the challenge of Kaohsiung Marine Bureau.

 Copyright Press Releases 2019