Simple Steps to get Halal Brand
veiw 216 Halal logo is a green rhombus symbol with Arabic letter in the center says “Halal” and has vertical line as a background. The logo is a necessary pass for every Halal food exporters.
Requesting Halal permit could be done at the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand (CICT) or the new unit of Department of International Trade Promotion of Thailand (DITP) called “One Stop Export Service, OSEC”, which is located at DITP, Ratchdapisek, Bangkok???. At OSEC office, direct agents from the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand who are in charge and approve the Halal brand. The procedures for requesting Halal brand for the new product are as follows:
1. Turn in contact and request forms and supported documents at OSEC or download from website www.halal.or.th. Submit all related documents at OSEC for the next process.
2. After checking all documents, the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand will schedule an appointment for manufacturing inspection. This inspection will include sources of materials, all production lines, and the contamination of all equipments used in order to certify that the entire manufacturing system follow Islamic regulations. This step will take approximately one week.
3. The result from manufacturing inspection will be submitted for continuing processed to the CICT.
4. Entrepreneurs who pass the first consideration will be approved by board of committee of the CICT, which will take approximately about one month.
The costs for certifying Halal brand is around 15,000 – 20,000 baht depending on the level of certification. However, entrepreneurs should note that the Halal brand is specifically certified for one product, not the entire manufacturing process. This means they cannot use one Halal brand with other uncertified products. Furthermore, each Halal brand will expire within a year, so it must be renewed yearly.
For renewal, entrepreneurs need to submit the renewal form and documents. If they submit within 60 days before expiration, the process will take only 15 – 20 minutes. However, if they let the Halal brand expires, they might need to restart the entire process as a newly request, except the last step might be faster since the CITC already received the records. The same deal will be used when the existing entrepreneurs request for adding another Halal brand for their products.
Reference: Exporters Review, First Half of February 2011, www.halal.or.th
