ISLAMIC COMMUNITY IN CROATIA
CENTER FOR HALAL QUALITY CERTIFICATION
PERSPECTIVES OF HALAL CERTIFICATION DEVELOPMENT AND
GROWTH THROUGH HALAL TOURISM: CHALLENGES AND ISSUES
AUTHOR: Aldin Dugonjić
CEO OF CENTER
PRESENTOR: NERMIN MERDŽANOVIĆ
CHAIRMAIN OF THE BOARD
INTRODUCTION
Products and services that are subject of exchange are not only pile of physical
and useful performance, but are primarily foundation of communication with
customers and users through added features. With purchase and use of certain
products and services, man also expresses his other qualities, value orientation,
and overall lifestyle. The important (if not most) is to recognize the motives that
govern the behavior and why the consumer / user behaves in a certain way.
Islam as a religion governs behavior in every human life-sphere encompassing
ethical, economic, social and cultural dimensions.
Because of these religious preferences Muslims follow halal way of life, in other
words halal lifestyle.
Therefore, there is a arising need for development of halal industry in the world.
In the last decade halal industry have very positive effect on the economic
development and growth especially in the food production and tourism sectors.
Looking at the current world scenario, halal products nowadays receive a very high
demand, approximately 20% of total food production goes for halal products while
halal tourism represents 13% in the worlds' tourism activities.
As such, countries around the world want to take a part into this fastes growing
market in the world.
Incoherent Halal Certification Processes in the World
The need to establish one global Halal standard for certification as well as
for accreditation is currently the most pressing issue within the Halal
industry.
Due to differing Halal standards not only between countries but also within
same country there are confusion, and misunderstanding .
The fact is that there are more than 200 institutions in 48 countries in the
world accredited to issue halal certificates.
Most of this institution are established in non-muslim countries and use
guidelines for halal certification from the countries they usually export their
goods.
Due to this non uniformity in the application of Halal standards, halal
certification became the subject of different personal interpretation which
mostly result in confusion and scepticsm in consumers' behavior towards
reliability of halal products and services.
As of today several initiatives have been developed
1. SMIIC (The Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries) which
already published these publications ( OIC/SMIIC 1:2011, General Guidelines on
Halal Food, OIC/SMICC 2:2011, Guidelines for Bodies Providing Halal
Certification, OIC/SMICC 3:2011, Guidelines for the Halal Accreditation Body
Accrediting Halal Certification Bodies.
2. CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, working on development
of EU norm for Halal food.
3. There are also several national norms such as HRN BAS/BAS 1049:2010, MS
1500:2004 etc.
The ultimate goal of those initiatives is uniformity of halal certification processes
and regulation of halal markets.
Positive Experiance of Southeastern Europian Region
Registration of Bosnian Herzegovinian halal standard BAS 1049:2010 and lately
adaptation of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian standard BAS 1049:2010, without
modifications by the Croatian Standardization Institute set the foundation of
systematic ways of the application of Halal Standard and development of Halal
industry in south-eastern European region.
Halal Tourism: Growth and Development
Perspectives
Rulebook of Certifying and Categorization of Hotels and Restaurants according
to requirements of Halal quality which recently have been expanded to
Hospitality Services , Travel Agencies and Health Facilities .
By making these Regulations Center for Halal Quality Certification has created a
base for development of Halal tourism in Croatia.
Regulations on the categorization of restaurants by the Halal quality
requirements are categorized with:
1.HALAL LABEL PACKAGE A
2. HALAL LABEL PACKAGE B
3.HALAL LABEL PACKAGE C
CONCLUSION
The competitive advantage of Croatia in the development of halal industry
lies in its unified ways of the application of Halal Standard.
The next step would be integration and linking of all related institutions and
organizations, in other words categorization of hotels, restaurants, HoReCa,
marines, travel agencies, tourist boards, tourist info centres, cities, counties,
agencies, ministries, medical service providers etc.
By its consolidation and management creativity new market approaches
could be developed which at the end might intertwines in many (profitable)
ways,
However, the equally important is raising awareness of availability of halal
certified products and services and at the same time preventing selfdeclaration of halal products and services. The ultimate goal of halal
certification is to satisfy consumer preferences and ensure reliability of
products' nature.
Sugesstions for Development
1. Creation of new products and services (halal certified)
2. Marketing and promotion on halal markets
3. Increase in consumption of halal products by:
 Raising awareness of availabilty of halal products and services
 Increasing demand for halal products from potential hotels and restaurants
 Attraction of new tourists and business people from halal markets
4. Liaison of all related economic and turistic factors
Croatia is more than ready to grow
its awareness of Halal diet and
welcomes guests to help increase
its knowledge.
There is only one way for that to
happen – come, visit and see what
we have to offer.
www.halal.hr